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Re: The buttons verses links debate

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Jan 25, 2013 6:44PM

And you're making my point, Lucy!
When we use ambiguous, multi-meaning words like "button" and "link" that mean different things to different people, there will be misunderstandings and confusion such as what you describe.

In your example, what the web developer called a "button" wasn't a button to you, a screen reader user. He meant the graphical thing with a link attached to it, which is what sighted website visitors would see and understand. Screen reader users needed more clarification to understand what they need to do and what will happen when they do.

But here's what is left out of this discussion: buttons have links.
The link could be one that takes the user to a webpage (a destination), it could open an email or other program, it could open a file, it could process something like submitting a form, or perform a function like adding up a total, but they are all forms of links.

Most graphical buttons are not neatly defined like the submit button or radio buttons in a form.

So when we say that a "button does this" and a "link does that," we confuse the heck out of web developers. In many cases there is no difference between the two. And when web developers don't correctly inform screen reader users, they confuse the heck of out them.

I believe we're after the same goal, Lucy: to make information accessible to everyone.
And I believe that if we hardwire define what a button is versus a link, it won't be used by web developers because we've misused 2 words that often are one and the same thing to developers.

So we have to find another way to give screen reader users what they need. I don't know what that is, but I do know that it isn't a redefinition of the words "button" and "link."

In your example, "how many times I have been told click the button and there is no button it’s a link," is exactly the case I'm making: in web development, they are most often one and the same.

—Bevi Chagnon