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RE: Accessibility Observations

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Feb 26, 2002 3:52PM

With CSS layout, you have total control over the reading order (or at
least you have the potential for total control). Take a look at these
two test pages:

http://www.webaim.org/paul/css-linearization
http://www.webaim.org/paul/css-linearization2

Both of them have exactly the same layout, but the "boxes" (which are
div tags with positioning style elements) are read in a different order,
depending on the order in which they show up in the source code. Screen
readers ignore the visual layout of this type of CSS positioning. They
go entirely by the order of the text in the source code.

Note: I did this the quick and easy way, using Dreamweaver "layers".
There are other, more sophisticated methods, but the idea is the same.

Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Center for Persons with Disabilities
www.cpd.usu.edu
Utah State University
www.usu.edu