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RE: Do screen readers read hidden text?

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Jul 13, 2003 9:36AM

Hi David,

Thanks for taking the time to correspond on this. I think I need to
clarify some of the techniques and scenarios I referred to. I'm speaking
here mainly from the point of view of a front-end developer.

> Exactly how do you use hidden text now?

The most common usage is to hide skip links. As pointed out earlier,
they should probably be provided visually, but I tend to use CSS based
layouts with the content at the top of the HTML page. I'm not sure who
would benefit from visual skip links in this case, since when tabbing
through links most browsers follow the code rather than layout.

Sometimes, I also like to provide some contextual information for
non-graphical browsers. For example, if a page has several sections and
lots of links, I would have (hidden) headings such as "Navigation" or
"Upcoming events". These help provide the context that a visual browser
shows with layout.

> From what I can tell, the media attribute of CSS2 will be a preferred
> technique once it is fully supported by browsers

Your absolutely right to point out browser support, which is required
before screen reader support, and thanks for those links :)
Aural support isn't there at all yet.

What I'm suggesting *might* be possible already (it needs checking) -
the difference between media="all" (the default) and media="screen".
Most style sheets don't have a media attribute set, so wouldn't be
affected. Those wanting to hide things from visual browsers but not
screen readers, could do so in a screen style sheet.

The table from the Codestyle site shows that the common browsers used by
people with screen readers (Internet Explorer 5+) do support the screen
style sheet. What I'm not sure of, is whether Jaws can tell the
difference (through IE) between all and screen.

> Hidden text is actually common in web applications or dynamic
> web sites.
Aren't these usually hidden in comments or something, rather than with
style sheets?

> It can also be used to hide information that is required
> for programmatic purposes but is not intended for any users
Are these hidden with styles? Hidden inputs for forms are hidden by the
HTML, but I would be out of my depth in commenting on large-scale back
end processes!
What are the methods used to hide this type of information?

Currently, screen readers (well, Jaws at least) will hide things that
are hidden by most techniques. Inline styles (in the HTML) and linked
style sheets. It is only things hidden by a class from an imported style
sheet that are not hidden to Jaws users.

I would suggest that this is either maintained, or slightly altered by
recognising imported styles, but not style sheets with a media of
screen.
For the vast majority of sites, people would not notice the difference
because they don't provide hidden links, and don't tend to use imported
styles.

However, for those people who do try and make life easier for users of
text browsers & screen readers, it would be an easy method.

Depending on how it is implemented, the hidden label text could be
useful, but I'd would still like a more general method.

All the best,

-Alastair


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