WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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RE: Reading OPTGROUP with JAWS

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Apr 17, 2002 2:12PM

I created a test page to show how well browsers do or do not support
optgroup. IE 6 on Windows, NS 6, IE 5 on Mac do support optgroup, but IE
6 for Mac is the only one that supports labels for option tags. You can
see the test page at:

http://www.webaim.org/paul/test/optgroup.htm

Browser support is important to those who view the page with their eyes,
but for a person using a screen reader, browser support is pretty much
irrelevant. The important aspect is screen reader support. I haven't
conducted a thorough test of all of the screen readers, but I think that
Andrew is right that screen readers will simply ignore the optgroup
groupings and read the options... I don't have quite enough time to test
this out, but this would be the next thing to investigate.

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