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Making non-structured menus work

for

From: Seth Rothberg
Date: Aug 25, 2004 1:47PM

I've been redesigning our library's web page template and would welcome some
feedback from list members on a couple of strategies for accessibility that
I've adopted.

The test page is at http://www.joneslibrary.org/newbanner.html.

At the moment I'm particularly concerned with the top navigation bar. My
instinct these days is to make menus unordered lists, but I found that when I
styled the as "display:in-line", so that I could make a horizontal
navigation bar, I did not have suffecient control over the display in any
browser to make it look the way I wanted it to.

So I've opted for a menu that consists of a non-structured list of links
bordered by two graphics whose alt text announces the beginning and end of
the menu.

This seems to work, but I've got a feeling I'm missing something on the
screen-reader aesthetic end (not to mention a visual aesthetic) as well as
accessible end.

Thanks,

Seth Rothberg
Web Master, Jones Library
http://www.joneslibrary.org