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Re: Definition Lists and Accessibility

for

From: _mallory
Date: Aug 20, 2015 11:23AM

Regular user or novice, I would expect any AT to do the following at
minimum:

1. correctly state the number of items by recognising that it's a
DL (so not doubling the number of items)
2. offer some manner for users to know where the DT ends and the DD
begins. Whether it's done like two separate paragraphs or something
more crazy, I don't care: markup wise, it's perfectly allowed and
legal to, for example, leave no spaces between tags.

<hx>Foods</hx><dl><dt>Cheese</dt><dd>stuff about cheese, which may
not even be a "proper" sentence; like car manuals</dd><dt>Etc...</dt>
...</dl>

Any AT that cannot do at least as much as a browser in knowing the
difference between "Cheese" and "stuff about cheese..." isn't doing
the users any good.

Now I'm not saying NVDA and VO don't, cause I dunno, but *if* it's
true that there's no sane way for a user to differentiate the
terms from the defs then I would consider using another markup
setup. And I say this loving DLs with all my heart.

So, has anyone done any recent user testing (novice..experienced
SR users) with DLs? Recent indeed. I'd love to know.

_mallory

On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 02:37:46PM +0000, Moore,Michael (HHSC) wrote:
> Was the person doing the testing an experienced screen reader user with a visual impairment or person with normal vision who uses a screen reader for testing?
>
> I ask this because we often make a lot of assumptions about understandability without doing actual user testing. The result is that we overthink some things and make bad assumptions about others.
>
> People who use screen readers or other assistive technologies daily, for access to information and services, not to "test for accessibility" have a much different experience than we sighted accessibility testers and our assumptions about what causes confusion and what does not is often wrong.
>
> What is the purpose of the list? How will the list be used? Is the information well organized? Does the user know from context that this is a list of terms with multiple definitions for each term? Think of how a print dictionary is organized. The terms are in alphabetical order and each definition is prefaced by a number making it fairly obvious which is which. If there are a lot of terms is there a mechanism that separates them into logical groups making it easier to find the one that you want? This is like the tabs on the side of your print dictionary.
>
> There is no hard and fast rule that says all glossary's or FAQ's or similar lists must be organized using a definition list, or that it must be a single list. Experiment with multiple options and test with real users including people with disabilities. I'll bet that you are surprised by the results. At the very least chances are that your end product is more usable for everyone. </rant>
>
> Mike Moore
> Accessibility Coordinator
> Texas Health and Human Services Commission
> Civil Rights Office
> (512) 438-3431 (Office)
> (512) 574-0091 (Cell)