WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: Difficulty with the WebAIM site

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From: Paul Bohman
Date: Feb 9, 2000 11:29AM

Ok, I know why it's doing this. On the page which you mentioned, we had set
the tab order using the HTML tag "tabindex". This is a good thing. The
problem is that we accidentally gave a tabindex number to one of the anchors
(link destinations). Tabindexes don't apply to anchors, only to the links
themselves. This was a case of human error.
Our erroneous tag looks like this:
<a name="submenu" tabindex="8"></a>
For the benefit of the group, a good tabindex looks like this:
<a href="http://www.webaim.org" tabindex="1">WebAIM home page</a>
<a href="http://www.w3.org/wai" tabindex="2">Web Accessibility Initiative
Home Page</a>
The above tags create two links, and specify the tab order for people who
are using the keyboard instead of the mouse. This can come in handy if, for
some reason, the normal tab order of your page is not the most logical
order. If the normal tab order is logical, then it probably is not necessary
to set a "tabindex" order.
To find out what the tab order is on your page, just go to the page and keep
on hitting the tab key. If all goes well, the tab key will take you through
the links in a logical fashion. If it doesn't, you may want to look at
either putting in a "tabindex" tag or in re-ordering the items on the page.
Sincerely,
Paul Bohman
Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM)
Utah State University
----- Original Message -----
From: Prof Norm Coombs < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: WebAIM accessibility forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: Difficulty with the WebAIM site

> I want to point another item I don't understand. It may be a difference
> between using a mouse and the tab.
>
> Here is the url: http://www.webaim.org/guidelines/
>
> When I tab along, about the 8th tab my screen reader tells me it is a link
> but it seems to have no alt-text, but that is only one part of the
problem.
> When I press enter, nothing seems to happen at all
>
> To clarify, the link before this link says Utah State University and the
> one after says skip main menu.
>
> If it is a link, I don't know why nothing happens. If it isn't a link, I
> wonder why it is tricking the screen reader.
>
> Norman
>
> At 09:38 AM 2/9/00 -0700, you wrote:
> >The reason that Norm's screen reader was unable to figure out what the
edit
> >field was for is because we had not put any text next to it. There is
only
> >an edit field followed by a button. In our case, the text was in the
button
> >itself ("search"), but, as we discovered, this is insufficient. We had
> >overlooked an important part of making forms accessible.
> >
> >In order for screen readers to "know" what the edit field is for, there
has
> >to be some sort of label for the field. In fact, this is part of the
WebAIM
> >guidelines for higher education institutions, and we simply overlooked
it.
> >This particular guideline can be found at:
> >http://www.webaim.org/guidelines/#_FORMS. You can also find a piece of
> >example code on this page which shows how to make edit fields accessible.
> >
> >We overlooked this aspect of accessibility on another site as well: The
> >Center for Persons with Disabilities (www.cpd.usu.edu). I have made the
> >correction on this site, according to the guidelines. I now realize that
we
> >will have to through the entire C.P.D. site and look for similar
oversights
> >on other forms.
> >
> >The webmaster for WebAIM will be making the changes to the WebAIM site
soon
> >as well.
> >
> >I'm glad that Norm was able to bring this issue to our attention. Thanks,
> >Norm! By the way, Norm, you did guess right about the purpose for the
edit
> >field. I'm just sorry that you had to guess.
> >
> >Sincerely,
> >
> >Paul Bohman
> >Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM)
> >Utah State University
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: Daren < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> >To: WebAIM accessibility forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> >Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2000 8:33 AM
> >Subject: Re: Difficulty with the WebAIM site
> >
> >
> >> What kind of screen reader is being used in this situation? Lynx or
> >> something else? I would like to try it out myself and see what is going
> >> on.
> >>
> >> Daren
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>