WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: - Blank paragraphs

for

From: Hayman, Douglass
Date: Nov 21, 2022 2:02PM

Kevin,

I think that like skipping heading levels, having those blank "P' tags can be problematic. If one is on a web page and hits "2" with NVDA and it says no next heading level 2, I wouldn't imagine people would then try "3", "4", "5", or "6". Sure, they could hit "H" and hear "no next heading" but I've seen several PDF files that have a third of a page of single "P" tags which read "blank, blank, blank" whereas not being there, it jumps to the next tagged content.

Not sure if you're getting at both authors to do the right thing as well as AT users to know their tech?

Doug Hayman
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Information Technology
Olympic College
<EMAIL REMOVED>
(360) 475-7632



-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Kevin Prince
Sent: Monday, November 21, 2022 12:56 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - [WebAIM] Blank paragraphs

CAUTION: This email came from a non-OC system or external source. Beware of phishing and social engineering!


One of my personal bugbears, in Word and the Web, is the use of a carriage return to provide space (It should be done using styles/css).

We discussed it at a team meeting and our screenreader user was horrified - "How would I know when a paragraph ends?"

He didn't know about navigating by paragraph with his screenreader. My position remains that anything we write for a wider audience should use styles for spacing and there's a responsibility on AT users to learn their AT. It doesn't help that 99% of the world thinks tapping return twice is what you do at the end of a paragraph but we can work on that.

If he wants an empty paragraph in documents written for him then I'll do that as a reasonable accommodation while gently helping him move along.

Thoughts?


Kevin


Sent from Mail<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.microsoft.com%2Ffwlink%2F%3FLinkId%3D550986&amp;data%7C01%7Cdhayman%40olympic.edu%7Cf92b92c9c49d48179b1308dacc02d7db%7C5089378aab1544c0b1bad4f21ccc3085%7C1%7C0%7C638046609957426274%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=7%2F5WmtPkHqGUuHPgJ0RhYwsKLekNWk%2FFQSHiP1dCLzk%3D&amp;reserved=0> for Windows



Kevin Prince

Product Accessibility & Usability Consultant



E <EMAIL REMOVED>

Christchurch

fostermoore.com

This email and its contents are confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, you should contact the sender immediately, you must not use, copy or disclose any of the information in the email, and you must delete it from your system immediately.