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Re: Link format: to underline or not

for

From: steven
Date: Oct 5, 2010 10:27AM

Indeed ... I slipped my tongue when I said "function" instead of "design".

That said, HTML5 does attempt to help with this by providing a semantic way
of differentiating between content and menu ... this itself, if done
properly, would actually result in being able to separate function from
content too ... though I don't think that it would be wrong, nor make it
useless or inaccessible.

If I were to say that function and content should be handled/delivered
separately, then yes, accessing the content could be deemed inaccessible.
But as databases aren't deemed inaccessible from the content and functions
they deliver to a browser's html, nor HTML5 with separating content and
menus, I think extending this to separating links from content to also be a
logical consideration. That way, a function (or browser setting) could
control whether content is just that ... or whether they want to find some
additional context to the content (rather than forcing links in the flow of
content - which itself is accessible, but adds an extra burden to people who
just want to access the content rather than tab through more links to get to
the menu for example)!?

Anyway, this is all wishful thinking I know, regardless of how it should be
done. We are the start of doing the right thing, so we can hardly be
surprised at all the problems we have.

If only I could convince our clients that their users' browsers (and there
own) should dictate the appearance of the websites we design for them,
rather than paying us to try and guarantee a particular look.

Steven



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jared Smith
Sent: 05 October 2010 17:03
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Link format: to underline or not

On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 9:49 AM, steven wrote:
> Why is that really okay? If we really want to separate
> content from function.

Who has ever suggested that you should separate content from function
on the web? Or content from structure, as your previous message
suggests. The web is all about function and structure - and
particularly links. Is it not authored in *hypertext* *markup*
language. Hypertext = links. Markup = structure. Both of these are
generally intended to be visually offset from standard content
otherwise they are useless.

What good would the web be if you tried to separate out content and
structure and function. It certainly would be neither useful nor
accessible.

I think perhaps you may be confusing recommendations that you should
separate content/functionality from *design*, a noble objective that
actually does support better accessibility.

Jared