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Re: Best way to set up links to documents

for

From: Randy Pope
Date: Oct 3, 2008 6:30PM

Hi Keith,

Another approach is the use the listing format: For example:

<p>The following forms and information are available in the following
formats:</p>

<ul>
<li>Disability Verification Form:<ul>
<li>MS Word</li>
<li>PDF</li>
</ul></li></ul>

<ul>
<li> Disability Questionnaire:<ul>
<li>MS Word</li>
<li>PDF</li>
</ul></li></ul>

<ul>
<li> Application for Services:<ul>
<li>MS Word</li>
<li>PDF</li>
</ul></li></ul>


where MS Word and PDF are the links. One can use CSS to control the look of
the page without affect the screen readers.

Still another way is to use the <form> tag with the drop down menu. But that
might be a pain for the regular vision users.

Most of my screen readers don't see or hear the title attributes. I'm not
sure why.

Hope this helps,
Randy Pope
AADB


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Keith Parks
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 2:22 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Best way to set up links to documents

Hi folks.

I looking for recommendations/best practices for handling a list of
links to downloadable forms. Currently I have a page of links to Word
files, set up like this...


Disability Verification Form (MS Word file)

Disability Questionnaire (MS Word file)

Application for Services (MS Word file)


...where the name of the document is the hyperlinked text. The client
wants to add PDF version of the documents linked up.

One way I've seen would be something like...

Disability Verification Form (MS Word file, PDF file)

Disability Questionnaire (MS Word file, PDF file)

Application for Services (MS Word file, PDF file)

where the words "MS Word file" and "PDF file" were the links to the
documents. But then you have both non-descriptive link text plus
identical words on the page that link to different things. A real no-
no, yes?

What seems theoretically the most "correct" way would be...

Disability Verification Form (MS Word file)
Disability Verification Form (PDF file)

Disability Questionnaire (MS Word file)
Disability Questionnaire (PDF file)

Application for Services (MS Word file)
Application for Services (PDF file)

... where the entire text is the link. But some of the forms have
fairly long names, and the repetition of the names ends up confusing
to my eye, especially when they wrap.

Authorization for Release of Information from Student Disability
Services [MS Word file]
Authorization for Release of Information from Student Disability
Services [PDF file]

Authorization for Release of Information from Outside Agency [MS Word
file]
Authorization for Release of Information from Outside Agency [PDF file]

Has anyone tackled this sort of thing from a different angle that I'm
not thinking of?

TIA,
Keith

******************************
Keith Parks
Graphic Designer/Web Designer
Student Affairs Communications Services
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-7444
(619) 594-1046
mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/communications

http://kparks.deviantart.com/gallery
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