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Re: text links on a separate page - compliant with 508?

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From: Michael D. Roush
Date: Mar 2, 2005 3:46PM

----- Original Message -----
From: "lists38"
To: "WebAIM Discussion List"
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 5:09 PM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] text links on a separate page - compliant with 508?
: >
: How usable is a very very large group of links though? What you are
: talking about is a portal/catalogue yahoo style.
: Yes, the way you described it does make sense. However, a search is in
: this case a much better option, or a drill down into categories.
: I'd really like to see user numbers on links in catalogues compared to
: search engine users. Personally I can never be bothered searching for
: links, I either try type-ahead or the search directly.

Absolutely. I'm right with you on this. A very very large group of links
is, by itself, cumbersome. However, a text-based site map can often be a
great help - not only for users who like to get a layout of all the pages on
a site and find the one they want to go to from there, but for designers who
are forced to ask themselves "Where does this new page I just created fit in
the logical scheme of my site?" The site map would be the ONLY page on a
site that I can see myself ever thinking should have such a huge number of
links on it. Tons of links will never be easy to manage or navigate, but at
least some steps can be taken to make them easier to work with.

Having a site-wide search function available on your site (on every page,
too) is also, imho, at least a potential benefit in regards to accessibility
and usability. Quality site-wide search functions are few and far between,
however, and thus aren't necessarily easily recognized. I don't like the
site-wide search functions that just say "Search" above the input box,
instead of "Search this Site". The first few I saw (such as the ones
powered by Google), I mistook for Internet-wide search boxes incorporated
into other pages.

Michael Roush,
Hopewell SERRC