WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

RE: Separating adjacent links

for

From: Jan Eric Hellbusch
Date: Jul 28, 2005 2:52AM

Hello,

> What is wrong with using a list for links? I always thought just using
> a list does make it fine for screen reader users. Visually you can
> use a background image or a border to separate them.

I think the problem is not the visual form of display. Rather there was a
major problem in older screen readers being used with braille displays. If a
charakter was omitted between links the braille display would show

Link1Link2Link3

and image what a complete navigation mechanism would look like. That also
explains the necessity for a space between the link and the character.

Lists were not supported properly by screen readers untill a couple of years
ago.

Remark: The assistive technology I am talking about doesn't even know what
CSS is.

The last time I tested this was three or four years ago. At the time we were
using JAWS 3.4 or JAWS 3.7.

Current screen readers have the option something of the like "Show links on
a single line" which separates the links on a braille display.

So, if you ask me, 10.5 is obsolete, especially since screen readers now
support lists.

Regs
Jan

--
Books on accessible web design:
www.barrierefreies-webdesign.de/buecher.php