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Re: Image maps and JAWS

for

From: Chris Heilmann
Date: Nov 29, 2004 8:37AM


>
> Chris,
>
> You really need to have redundent text links for all the AREA
> links, since none of the major browsers will render ALT text
> for AREA defined image hot spots, when images are turned off.
> This is important for people with low vision, who do not use
> screen readers or magnifiers.
>
> Try using the Opera browser (http://www.opera.com) and
> toggling off images (G key). It is the easiest browser to
> toggle off images.

I understand that issue, however isn't that a browser problem and not ours
as developers? The only _really_ accessible way would be to replicate the
navigation as visible text links then, which is something the client will
not agree with. Text browsers and screen readers don't seem to have an
issue with a proper image map with alt and title attributes, it is
browsers with images turned off. I also thought about using lists with
absolute positioning and text replacement ("css sprites"), but that means
that there won't be any text when images are turned off either. I could
write a script that checks if images are being loaded, and then apply the
map, otherwise display text links, but that seems overkill.

--
Chris Heilmann
http://icant.co.uk/ | http://www.onlinetools.org/