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Re: table of contents - leader dots best practice

for

From: Laura Roberts
Date: Oct 4, 2022 4:58PM

I agree.

Just like I wish there was a way to mark something as an acronym so AT
doesn't read it as a word, or mark something as a roman numeral, and well,
the list goes on and on...

On Tue, Oct 4, 2022 at 4:45 PM < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Quote: " All the advice I've found has been contradictory on this." /End
> Quote
>
>
>
> That's because the accessibility standards, both WCAG and PDF/UA, don't
> fully address these page elements. Consequently, there's no guidance for
> assistive technologies to develop toward. Any guidance you find is
> someone's opinion — and maybe it's good advice, maybe it isn't, or it may
> or may not work for your particular TOC.
>
>
>
> This topic is perfect timing as I design a template for a client's report.
>
> Sometimes I think we should artifact the leader dots, but we have run into
> some TOCs that voice very incorrectly when the leaders are artifacted.
> Example:
>
> A TOC item that has 15 leader dots between the title and page number.
> Looks like this:
>
>
>
> Chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
>
>
>
> If the leader dots are artifacted, it can be voiced as "Chapter 351" or
> "Chapter 3 (slight pause) 51."
>
>
>
> If the leader dots aren't artifacted, it can be voiced as "Chapter 3 dot
> dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot 51."
>
>
>
> Or "Chapter 3 dot dot dot 51."
>
>
>
> Or "Chapter 3 15 dot 51."
>
>
>
> Note that there is no law that prevents other designs of TOC items. In
> fact, the above format with a dot leader is traditional only in standard
> office documents, not in magazines and other highly-designed documents. I
> could design it with the page number first followed by a bullet and the
> title: "51 ' Chapter 3". Or I could design something visually dynamic with
> large text, color, and graphics for a picture-centered TOC in a magazine.
>
>
>
> As a sighted content creator, I don't have a clue how any of these
> variations will be voiced to my audience because every A T handles the TOC
> differently. Plus user settings and preferences can affect how a TOC item
> is voiced.
>
>
>
> Ideally, I want all users to know that Chapter 3 starts on page 51, and
> have an active accessible hyperlink to it.
>
>
>
> I think that we, the industry, need to work on better standards for this
> and also work with assistive technology manufacturers to get decent
> implementations in our various A T. If there was a way to identify or tag
> the 51 portion as the page number, then there wouldn't be so much confusion
> when the leaders are artifacted, or when the sequence is flipped with the
> page number first, followed by the title.
>
>
>
> I guess I could have the word "Page" before each page number, but that
> gets visually clunky for sighted users.
>
>
>
> Just my 2 cents' worth!
>
>
>
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>
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