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Re: Definition Lists and Accessibility

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From: Lynn Holdsworth
Date: Aug 20, 2015 8:14AM

Hi all,

Yesterday we tested a complex definition list with 3 screenreaders.

The list contained 6 terms, each with a whole bunch of definitions,
making 347 items in all.

The screenreadders:
* JAWS correctly identified the list as a definition list with 6
items. But arrowing down the items in the list, it didn't flag up
which items were terms and which were definitions, so the paradigm
became very confusing.

* WindowEyes described it as a list with 347 items, but when arrowing
through the list, it identified each item as a DT or DD, wich was very
helpful.

* NVDA, like WindowEyes,picks up a list with 347 items, and like Jaws
doesn't differentiate between terms and definitions, offering a worst
of both worlds scenario.

* VoiceOver: we only did a quick test with VoiceOver on a Mac, but it
seemed to behave in a way similar to NVDA.

I sympathise with the school of thought that says we should always use
semantic mark-up and not come up with hacky work-arounds for
screenreaders; but in this scenario, where the lack of support in all
screenreaders is likely to cause serious confusion, I would report the
bug and opt for a work-around. I'm advising the client to use either
nested lists or headings for terms followed by lists of definitions.

Best, Lynn

On 16/08/2015, Guy Hickling < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Don't mess up your HTML markup (and risk causing problems for users of
> those products that do it correctly) to try to cater for the shortcomings
> of a particular screen reader or AT, because while you are doing that the
> manufacturer is probably updating their product to do the correct thing
> anyway! - and if they don't, and they allow their product to to fall too
> far behind other similar products, people will soon stop using them and the
> problem will have been solved for you.
> Regards,
> Guy
> > > > >