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1px gif link vs. hidden text link

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From: Freda Lockert
Date: Oct 21, 2002 11:57AM

Hello

I'm working on my first, very small, accessibility project - web page
versions of a print newsletter I produce for a small non-profit. I'm
wondering which is the best way to provide a link to pass over a
long contents list and go straight to the first article in the
newsletter? I have the WeMedia speech browser, but not a screen
reader (I'm a volunteer, budget=0).

I listened to the newsletters in the WeMedia browser with a 1px gif
link, and it read out the full link address and didn't give any
information as to where the link went, even with the info in both the
alt and title attributes, and the browser couldn't follow the link.
Not good.

I changed the 1px gif to a text link, hidden with a CSS class where
the text size is 0px, and all the pseudo-classes match the page
background. This works fine in WeMedia but how would screen readers
handle this? For a screen reader to read text, does it have to be
visible on screen, at a human-readable size, or simply present in the
source?

I'd rather keep the visual effects, with the 'accessibility' links
hidden if possible, but will put them in plain text if it resolves
problems with the technology.

TIA.

Freda


--
Freda's Views of France : http://www.cubica.co.uk/france/


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