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Re: WCAG

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Dec 16, 2009 2:27PM

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 2:03 PM, Geof Collis < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Is this correct?

No. It's silly to expect or require that all things that might
possibly be, look like, or even actually are navigation elements be
proceeded by a heading. How many sites do you know of that have a
"Navigation" heading immediately before the main navigation links?
It's reasonable to assume that both sighted and non-sighted users will
understand that a group of links near the beginning of the page that
link to major areas of the site are probably the navigation.
Suggesting that developers must explicitly tell the user what they are
via a heading is a bit extreme.

Now if the group of navigation items already has a visible header,
then yes, that header should be marked up as a header at the
appropriate level.

Additionally, adding the ARIA role="navigation" allows assistive
technology to explicitly know the section of the page that is
navigation.

Jared Smith
WebAIM