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Re: Checking color contrast, keyboard focus and webpage look/ARIA as a blind user

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Feb 14, 2013 10:20AM

Birkir wrote: "For instance, I see a long long list of links and I suspect
this is an example of RWD/tabbed browsing"

Sometimes this can be caused by a multi-level tabbed navigation system,
where one tab can hold many sub-links and sub-sub-links to interior
webpages.

But it also could be a multi-navigation design with links, menus, and lists
placed in several different places on the webpage. Large organizations often
suffer political infighting about whose project or program gets a link on
the opening homepage. It's a status fight! To accommodate everyone in the
organization, web developers will often create several different menu
systems here and there around the webpage. One of my client's website has a
100+ links to major projects in a long list down the left side of the page
that I wouldn't call a menu or navigation system. It's a disjointed,
uncoordinated list of everyone's pet project.

For example, I'm on a webpage right now for a large organization and it has
around 75 links on it. The main website's navigation is 8 links aligned
left-to-right across the top of the webpage, above the banner and all other
information. Web developers usually call this the "persistent" navigation
because it should be consistent throughout the entire website. For example,
the search box is there.

The secondary "quick links" menu is down the left side of the webpage and it
has 16 links. Some of these link to the most frequently visited pages in the
website, others are there because someone lobbied to get their project on
the homepage. I don't know what to call this type of menu: hodgepodge?
Mash-up?

The third menu of links appears on the right side of the page, top to
bottom. It has 9 links to webpages that are related to the main topic of the
webpage. Web developers refer to this as a variable or dynamic menu because
it changes depending upon which webpage or topic you are visiting.

The very bottom of the webpage contains 5 footer links, such as the privacy
policy and sitemap.

The remaining 2 dozen plus links are in the main content storywell in the
center of the webpage. Most are interspersed within the body text, others
are in unordered lists (at least I hope they're coded that way!).

I'm fully sighted and able, and I'm confused and lost when visiting this
website. If I used a screen reader, I would pray that there was a "skip-nav
/ skip to main content" link at the very top!

Regarding ARIA roles, I'm not sure all of these different types of links
could be designated with ARIA. Some are menus, but some are also a
hodgepodge of linked "stuff."

I'd love to hear other's opinions about this type of web design and how it
could be improved with ARIA.

-Bevi Chagnon
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