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Re: Off-left vs. block/none oddity.

for

From: Christian Heilmann
Date: Feb 3, 2006 8:00AM

> > The question now is how screen readers deal with the activation and
> > navigation in it. If that is fine, I think it is a more obvious choice
> > for JavaScript driven menus to go the block/none way - pending you
> > don't hide the elements via CSS from the beginning.
>
> The trouble is that more screen readers these days (specifically JAWS
> springs to mind, but there are others) are parsing CSS and so if you
> use display: none then it doesn't get read out at all.

I know, hence the "pending you don't hide the elements via CSS from
the beginning." :-)

Hiding things via CSS and hoping JavaScript will be available to show
them is bad development practice, as you rely on two technologies that
might not be available.

The screen reader question might have been not properly formed by me,
hence the misunderstanding. I am not hiding anything with CSS but only
when JS is available - actually I don't even provide any links to show
and hide the sub sections when JS is turned off.

The scenario I am interested in is screen reader + JS enabled.

In other scripts I used the off-left technique - as advertised by Joe
Clark and the research you provided the link to. These had the problem
that I had to tab through each link as a keyboard user. By hiding the
elments _in JavaScript_ via block/none I don't have that problem.

I have Jaws at home, will give it a spin later.

--
Chris Heilmann
Blog: http://www.wait-till-i.com
Writing: http://icant.co.uk/
Binaries: http://www.onlinetools.org/