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Re: Responsive Web Design

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: May 10, 2013 11:03AM

Hi Jan,

I think the answer to the skip link question you pose is that "It depends."

I have heard a number of users mention that visible skip links can be useful on smaller devices--however, that tends to be with pages that involve a lot of scrolling. Normally, with responsive web, you want to minimize the information that is exposed by the user interface for a smaller device in order to limit the scrolling.

As for the second question... If you are going to conform to WCAG 2.0, you will need to ensure that a meaningful reading order is maintained.

I won't claim to be any type of expert on responsive web design. However, just based on my experience, I don't recall coming across any design where the visual and source order of the content needed to change between break points. For example, at each breakpoint, the design might include fewer columns. However, there wasn't a change in the source or visual reading order. If you know of a specific example, I am sure you could pose it to this group and you would get some good ideas of how to make it work.

Thanks!
Tim

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jan Heck
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 5:59 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Responsive Web Design

I'm venturing into responsive design, so that the same site can be viewed
on desktops, laptops, iPads, phones, etc., adapting to the screen size. I
have a couple of questions from an accessibility point of view that I hope
some of you might help me with:

1. Does a "skip to main content" link serve any purpose on a phone or iPad?

2. Parts of the design are often moved around to accommodate different
screen sizes. This means the source order doesn't always match the visual
order. When this is the case, does it make more sense to make sure the
desktop is closest to matching visual with source order (as opposed to
phone)? Any opinions on this?

Thanks very much,
Jan Heck