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Re: Proper way to hide content from a screen reader

for

From: Moore,Michael (DARS)
Date: Nov 17, 2009 7:35AM

Jared:
"It's pretty reliable. There are a few, very rare instances where
display:none alone won't hide content
(http://juicystudio.com/article/screen-readers-display-none.php), but
using display:none and visibility:hidden together should certainly do
the trick."


"Because the content is presumably revealed with javascript, you might
consider generating the content and injecting it into the document
entirely with javascript. A problem with display:none is that it will
be visible if the user has styles disabled. Seeing a time-out message
in this case could be quite confusing. Writing the content with
javascript at the appropriate time and injecting it into the document
would alleviate this potential issue."


Mike:
Even better consider using JS to create a dialog box that allows the user to extend the time. The advantage of this type of implementation is that focus will be placed on the box immediately. When timeout messages are displayed within the content, they are easily missed and a user who needs more time may not find the message before it is too late. This a particularly a problem for screen magnifier users, and screen reader users who only see a small portion of the screen at a time.


Mike Moore