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Re: FW: CSS and 508 Challenge

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Aug 24, 2010 1:03PM

On Tue, Aug 24, 2010 at 12:45 PM, Langum, Michael J wrote:

> My question arose because I am trying to ensure that the message spoken when a JAWS user lists only links, will be equivalent to the text displayed in the full HTML.

I see. There is some complexity when the additional information is
already presented to the user visually, but not within the link text.
As noted, the title attribute won't do anything in this case (except
for provide a tooltip with redundant information for some sighted
mouse users). And if it did, it would be very repetitive for the
screen reader user listening to the page (as opposed to navigating by
links). This also makes the hidden text approach I suggested less than
optimal, though better than nothing, I suppose.

I think a much simpler approach solves the problem for everyone
without the overhead of hidden styles, title attributes, and (I think
incorrect) use of definition lists - <a href="form.pdf">OPM 71,
Request for leave or Approved Absence (Fillable PDF, 59KB)</a>.
Putting a <br> after "OPM 71" and even styling the remaining text to
be indented would give a very similar visual presentation.

Jared