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Re: Sample Sites

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From: Leo Smith
Date: Sep 3, 2002 10:22AM

One of the advantages, and potentially serious pitfalls, of using
<div>'s for layout is that you can present the page one way
visually, but in a different order for text only browsers and screen
readers, who linearize the content based on the order that it
appears in the source code.

If one is not not aware of this, and uses Dreamweaver, say, to
layout <div>'s without looking at the source code that is generated,
you can create a page that makes sense visually but is
nonsensical when linearized.

*However* one can use the independence of CSS code layout from
visual layout to the advantage of your user, navigation being the
thing that comes to mind. I agree that _visually_ it can make sense
for the page's navigation to appear before the content (although I
am beginnning to use more and more right column navigation).
Since the user is accessing the information on the page visually,
they can easily skip such navigation if the point where the main
page content begins is clear visually.

Of course visual scanning is not available to people using screen
readers, and is perhaps more difficult for those using text-only
browsers since the visual cues are not there, other than ordering.
The question is then, which is better: having the navigation first with
a skip to main page content, or the content first with a skip to
navigation.

I think the former is more appropriate for a home page, but I like the
idea of the latter better (skip to navigation) for internal pages. Either
implementation would seem to work for a screen reader user in
essentially the same way, but for text browser users, not having to
scan through all of those links before reaching the main content
might be of benefit, especially when continuous content spans
more than one Web page. In this scenario, the user should still be
able to use any "skip to main content" link, however.

Leo.

On 30 Aug 2002, at 20:26, Tom Gilder wrote:

> On Friday, August 30, 2002, 7:26:08 PM, you wrote:
> > > > http://1stpc.org
> > > The site is great. I viewed it without style sheets and noticed
> > > that when linearized the page content comes first and then the
> > > left hand links. Is this intentional -- I normally do it the other
> > > way around.
> >
> > 1) lynx and screen readers: If you have used lynx a lot (and I have,
> > it was my primary browser for some time) you know how awful it is
> > trying to get to the 'meat' of a page because there's usually so
> > much fluff before it -- OR you get the same navigation menus over
> > and over again on each page, which gets annoying fast
>
> However, what if you *want* to get to the navigation quickly using a
> screenreader? In that case, you have to listen to the entire page
> content beforehand.
>
> In my opinion it makes more sense (visually, at least) to have
> navigation before content - and then provide a "skip navigation"
> link. You could also solve this problem with a "jump to navigation"
> link near the start of the document.
>
>

Leo Smith
Web Designer/Developer
USM Office of Publications and Marketing
University of Southern Maine
207-780-4774


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