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Re: please test expanding content areas

for

From: Steve Green
Date: Feb 8, 2012 4:57PM

This sort of hide / reveal feature always causes problems when we do user
testing with screen reader users, even highly-proficient ones. As Patrick
says, you don't know whether something has changed. Even if you do know that
something changed, you don't know what and you don't know if it is worth
making the effort to find out.

Don't forget that a screen reader user cannot quickly scan content like most
users can - they have to read all of it, and it is frustrating to do so and
find that it actually was not worth the trouble. Hide / reveal is more
suited to optional content such as Help text, not the main content.

In my view ARIA is currently only a theoretical solution. We meet very few
people who have any idea what it is. Some are aware that new events are now
announced but they don't know what they mean. It's a chicken and egg problem
insofar as people will not learn until ARIA is widely supported and used.
However, I think it's going to take a very large organisation such as Amazon
or the BBC to implement ARIA before users develop the need or desire to
learn about it.

In the meantime I advise people to only use hide / reveal and other dynamic
features if it is really necessary. In your case I would say it's not.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd