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RE: repetitive navigation

for

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Feb 12, 2003 4:27PM

Thank you for posting this example to the list. I am intrigued by the
possibilities of the code that you have shared with us. Your code allows
keyboard access to a hidden "skip to main content" link, which becomes
visible when tabbed to, and your fly-out menus are keyboard accessible as
well. I tested it in one of my screen readers and it performed well.

It appears to me that your method has quite a bit of potential. The markup
worked as intended in Internet Explorer 6 and Netscape 7. I tested it in a
couple of other browsers, including Opera 7, Netscape 4.8, and Netscape 3,
which did not seem to offer the same functionality as IE 6 or NS 7.

I do have a question. Why is the "skip to main content" link invisible and
(as far as I can tell) non-functional in Opera and NS 4.x? I can tell that
you are serving out different style sheets for different browsers, so it
seems to me that if you can't get the page to work exactly as you would
like, you could still make the "skip to main content" link functional (and
always visible, if necessary).

If I have missed something about the design, let me know.

If you can make the page work so that the "skip to main content" link is
invisible in newer browsers except when tabbed to, and if you make it always
visible and functional in other browsers (and in browsers with JavaScript
turned off), you may have a very workable technique. As for the fly-out
menu, to accommodate older browsers or browsers with JavaScript turned off,
you'd either have to make it so that the submenu items appeared on the
subsequent page or make it so that they appeared in the correct location on
the page (below the menu top level link) in older browsers and when
JavaScript is turned off.

I hope that you have either already found solutions for these issues, or
that you will be able to, because the technique has potential.

Keep us posted.

Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Center for Persons with Disabilities
www.cpd.usu.edu
Utah State University
www.usu.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Pawley [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Thursday, February 06, 2003 8:29 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: RE: repetitive navigation


Hi Paul,

At 06/02/03 12:39 -0700, you wrote:
>That is a possibility which might simultaneously satisfy accessibility
>requirements and graphic designers. I'd be interested to see any test
>pages that you come up with using this approach.

I am currently revising my site. I don't want to air it yet, so I have put
up one page that has very little textual revision in it:
http://www.alexanderworks.org.uk/wai/fees.html

You will need

username: wai
password: whynot

to access it. The page links (those that work) all lead to my current site.

Please, everyone, feel free to look. All criticism is welcome.

All the best,
--
Philip Pawley
Liverpool, UK
http://www.alexanderworks.org.uk/
--





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