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From: Bergel, Marguerite
Date: Sun, Mar 11 2007 8:40PM
Subject: Suppressing visibility of "invisible" frames?
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Hello,

Some of our Web sites make use of frames that are supposed to be
invisible. These frames contain parameters that are relevant only to
systems, but provide nothing useful to human users. Screen readers don't
even pick up on the data within these frames, just the fact that the
frames themselves are there.

Is there a way to suppress visibility of frames that are supposed to be
invisible but aren't to JAWS/Window Eyes? E.g. is there an alt=""
equivalent for frames? I've done some preliminary research, but haven't
come up with anything.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help,
Marguerite

From: ben morrison
Date: Mon, Mar 12 2007 3:30AM
Subject: Re: Suppressing visibility of "invisible" frames?
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On 3/12/07, Bergel, Marguerite < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Some of our Web sites make use of frames that are supposed to be
> invisible. These frames contain parameters that are relevant only to
> systems, but provide nothing useful to human users. Screen readers don't
> even pick up on the data within these frames, just the fact that the
> frames themselves are there.
>
> Is there a way to suppress visibility of frames that are supposed to be
> invisible but aren't to JAWS/Window Eyes? E.g. is there an alt=""
> equivalent for frames? I've done some preliminary research, but haven't
> come up with anything.

You could try by hiding the content with CSS, since its accepted that
screen readers will not read content with display:none attached to it.
So either use display:none on the iframe or a containing div.

http://css-discuss.incutio.com/?page=ScreenreaderVisibility

ben
--
Ben Morrison

From: Jared Smith
Date: Mon, Mar 12 2007 10:10AM
Subject: Re: Suppressing visibility of "invisible" frames?
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On 3/11/07, Bergel, Marguerite < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Is there a way to suppress visibility of frames that are supposed to be
> invisible but aren't to JAWS/Window Eyes? E.g. is there an alt=""
> equivalent for frames? I've done some preliminary research, but haven't
> come up with anything.

There is the title attribute which should describe the content or
function of each frame - http://webaim.org/techniques/frames/ However,
screen readers expect each frame to contain content, so if the title
is left off or is empty (title=""), the screen reader still identifies
the frame by using the frame name, document title, document file name,
or something else. So, there really isn't a good method of hiding the
frame from screen readers.

You should, however, give the frame a title such as title="empty
frame" or something similar so the user doesn't try to navigate
through it.

CSS (display:none or visibility:hidden) might work if applied to the
frame itself.

Another option is to move the frame functionality to an iframe.

Jared Smith
WebAIM.org