WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: multiple file formats

for

From: Moore, Michael
Date: Jan 3, 2007 7:30AM


We have a forms catalog where different forms are available in Word, PDF
html formats. We use a table approach to provide the information. The
column headings are "Form Number" "Title" "Word" "PDF" "Instructions."
Links to html versions are contained within the title column when that
version is available. We use icons to avoid using too much screen real
estate but the text in the alt attribute contains the name and id of the
form as well as its format. We have a couple hundred staff members who
use the catalog with either JAWS or ZoomText as well as staff using
Dragon Naturally Speaking and staff using non-standard keyboards. The
approach has proven effective for all of them.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Cheryl Amato
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 2:59 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] multiple file formats

I have a question. What is the best way to handle multiple formats of
the same file. Currently they are presented in a three column table. The
columns are file name, PDF and Word. Is making this table a data table
sufficient? My concern is that users navigating from one link to another
will not understand as all they'll get is "Word" or "PDF" - not the file
name.

I would like to know how others are handling this?

Cheryl Amato
Trusted Technologies