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RE: CSS positioning with Dreamweaver

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Mar 25, 2002 12:59PM

Looks like people have already begun to answer this question, but I'll
still put my post in with the others:

The answer to this problem is actually available in the same book that
they will be publishing. I'll explain it briefly here:

Dreamweaver allows users to create what it calls "layers." In the
default configuration of Dreamweaver, these "layers" are actually <div>
elements with CSS positioning applied to them. Page authors can create
almost any imaginable configuration of layers. They can rearrange them,
enlarge or shrink them, rearrange them again, and so on.

This sort of flexibility is great for authors, but it can cause havoc
for users of screen readers. Screen readers ignore all of the CSS
positioning. All of it. Screen readers are only concerned with the
literal order of the elements in the page. This is often referred to as
"linearization" or the "linearized order" of elements on the page.

To find out the linearized reading order of a document, remove ALL of
the HTML tags (or just imagine doing so). You should be left with plain
text. This is the order that screen readers care about.

As was mentioned in earlier posts, you can rearrange the order of <div>
tags created in Dreamweaver, because they show up as little yellow
shields in the upper left of the document. Use your mouse to rearrange
them so that the reading order matches the visual layout order.
Rearranging these little yellow shields will not affect the visual
layout at all. It will be a HUGE benefit to those who use screen readers
though.

Dreamweaver is not the only tool in which this is an issue. GoLive is
another example, and, to some extent, FrontPage as well.

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