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Re: accessible tree menus

for

From: Rich Pedley
Date: Feb 28, 2009 1:50PM

On 28/02/2009 20:25, Chris Hoffman wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 28, 2009 at 2:33 PM, John Foliot < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
>
>> Thing is, before you skip over large blocks of anything, you need
>> to know *what* you are skipping over - and for non-sighted users
>> the only way to really know what that is, is to actually have to
>> process it/them. In the case of the mint site I referenced
>> [http://bullion.nwtmint.com/], that would be *all 80* of those
>> links. (Other hints, such as using headings or the summary or
>> title attributes can also assist here, but in-and-of-themselves
>> are not complete solutions)
>
> I disagree. The limits of our cognition (not to mention the limits
> of time) require that we skip over large blocks of content all the
> time without knowing their exact details, whether we are sighted or
> not.

I've snipped your example - because it is very good.

"Without knowing exact details" - so you need a clue as to what is
there. So headings can help here. But lets image for a moment there
are no headings. If you look with your eyes at a block of text, even
without consciously reading it you are able to gleam an awful lot of
information. One technique for speed reading is to read a column down
the centre of the page and let your brain pick up the sides by
peripheral vision. However a blind person, which this is possibly more
relevant to than other forms of disabilities, cannot do that. For
obvious reasons.

So although we as sighted users can skip over things without knowing
their exact details, we have in fact picked up tidbits here and there.
So there should be some form of identification as to what the large
block is - which is why we have headings.

Rich