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Re: Link labels and APA citations

for

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Oct 19, 2014 9:02PM

Olaf wrote:
"I consider this whole idea of link handling (text enclosed by a link must
explain what the link is about in a self-contained fashion) ill advice. Just
because screen reader users tend to develop a habit on web pages to find
their way through such a page by checking out all the links on it is not
reason at all to impose a requirement on content (especially as opposed to
navigational structures on a web page) to enable such use of links."

Bingo.
I've spent my entire life working with family members and friends with
vision and physical disabilities, long before computer-based assistive
technologies were available.

I can't begin to count the number of times I've been asked to help a
screen-reader user figure out a document. Most cases they got lost in a maze
of web links because they used Jaws's keyboard shortcut to voice all links
(Insert + F7, I believe), clicked, and ended up someplace unexpected...even
with descriptive text in the link.

By definition, a shortcut is a short cut...it bypasses something and takes
you directly to a destination. If I'm driving a car, a shortcut can bypass
traffic, but in a document or website, I'm bypassing all the text narration
preceding the link and missing the entire context of why the link is there
in the first place.

On a webpage, this shortcut used to be helpful because voicing the links
gives all the navigation links...but also includes non-navigation links,
too. Don't we have better methods of coding websites to clue users to the
navigation, and discover where they are in the website and where they can
go?

Is this shortcut - and the WCAG requirement for "meaningful text in a
hyperlink" - really needed?

One of the first things I teach my screen reader users is to stop depending
upon that blasted shortcut because they're shortchanging themselves. Read
the document or webpage first, understand the content and its context, then
jump to the link shortcuts.

This problem isn't just in bibliographic entries; it affects every link in
the document or webpage. As a professional writer and editor, I often can't
meet this WCAG requirement without writing convoluted and confusing text
before and in the link. And that does a disservice to everyone, with or
without a disability.

I agree with Olaf's comment: "Same rules for everyone! An average sighted
user will have to read the entries in a bibliography to figure out what they
are about, and can the use the link provided with it accordingly. I fail to
see why this should be different for people with a disability or two."

- Bevi Chagnon
- PubCom.com - Trainers, Consultants, Designers, and Developers.
- Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and U.S. Federal Section 508
Accessibility.
- 508 Workshop: www.workshop.pubcom.com
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