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Thread: How to indicate "disabled" link?

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From: Laura Harley
Date: Tue, Sep 06 2005 7:20PM
Subject: How to indicate "disabled" link?
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What is the best way to indicate that an HTML link is "disabled" for 508
users?

I am building a Web application. There are 3-4 links in a toolbar (not
graphics, text links). In most circumstances, all the links are active, but
under certain circumstances, one link is not active. I don't want to remove
the link when it is not active. That's not good interface design. I need to
indicate that it's disabled.

Any suggestions?

Laura



---------------------------------------
Laura Harley
Principal and Sr. Web Architect
Design Interactive LLC
Alexandria, VA 22302

Visit our Website: http://www.designinteractive.com







From: Christian Heilmann
Date: Tue, Sep 06 2005 11:20PM
Subject: Re: How to indicate "disabled" link?
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> What is the best way to indicate that an HTML link is "disabled" for 508
> users?
>
> I am building a Web application. There are 3-4 links in a toolbar (not
> graphics, text links). In most circumstances, all the links are active, but
> under certain circumstances, one link is not active. I don't want to remove
> the link when it is not active. That's not good interface design. I need to
> indicate that it's disabled.

Didn't Patrick answer that some days ago? A disabled link is not a
link, simply remove the link element and maybe grey out the text
instead. There is no disabled attribute for links as there is for
buttons and text fields.


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




From: Aaron Schaap
Date: Wed, Sep 07 2005 6:40AM
Subject: Re: How to indicate "disabled" link?
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Could you put nohref="nohref"?

---------------------------------
Aaron Schaap
phone: 616-566-1423
www.theparagon.org (personal)
www.elevatorup.com (business)


On Aug 24, 2005, at 7:29 PM, Laura Harley wrote:

>
>
> What is the best way to indicate that an HTML link is "disabled"
> for 508
> users?
>
> I am building a Web application. There are 3-4 links in a toolbar (not
> graphics, text links). In most circumstances, all the links are
> active, but
> under certain circumstances, one link is not active. I don't want
> to remove
> the link when it is not active. That's not good interface design.
> I need to
> indicate that it's disabled.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Laura
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
> Laura Harley
> Principal and Sr. Web Architect
> Design Interactive LLC
> Alexandria, VA 22302
>
> Visit our Website: http://www.designinteractive.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>





From: Patrick Lauke
Date: Wed, Sep 07 2005 7:20AM
Subject: RE: How to indicate "disabled" link?
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> Aaron Schaap

> Could you put nohref="nohref"?

Aeh...maybe in a parallel universe. Over in this plane of reality,
we should try to stick to web standards.
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/links.html#h-12.2

As Christian rightly remembered: if it's not a link, don't mark it up
as one. What's so difficult about that concept?

Patrick
___________
Patrick H. Lauke
Webmaster / University of Salford
http://www.salford.ac.uk
___________
Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force
http://webstandards.org/
___________




From: Patrick Lauke
Date: Wed, Sep 07 2005 9:20AM
Subject: RE: How to indicate "disabled" link?
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> Lauke Patrick

> Aeh...maybe in a parallel universe. Over in this plane of reality,
> we should try to stick to web standards.
> http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/links.html#h-12.2
>
> As Christian rightly remembered: if it's not a link, don't mark it up
> as one. What's so difficult about that concept?

On re-reading, I'd like to apologise for the overly flippant tone
(though I still stand behind the actual message).

Hope I didn't cause offense,

Patrick
___________
Patrick H. Lauke
Webmaster / University of Salford
http://www.salford.ac.uk
___________
Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force
http://webstandards.org/
___________




From: Patrick Lauke
Date: Wed, Sep 07 2005 10:00AM
Subject: RE: How to indicate "disabled" link?
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> Aaron Schaap

> no problem at all, I thought I read in Joe Clark's book that you
> could do that. I must have read something wrong.

Ah, I actually found nohref under the image map section
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/objects.html#h-13.6.1

I'd never heard of it, but then again I hardly ever used image maps.
So, not such a parallel universe after all (though it still doesn't
apply to actual links) :)

Patrick
___________
Patrick H. Lauke
Webmaster / University of Salford
http://www.salford.ac.uk
___________
Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force
http://webstandards.org/
___________




From: Aaron Schaap
Date: Wed, Sep 07 2005 10:40AM
Subject: RE: How to indicate "disabled" link?
← Previous message | No next message


no problem at all, I thought I read in Joe Clark's book that you
could do that. I must have read something wrong.

---------------------------------
Aaron Schaap
phone: 616-566-1423
www.theparagon.org (personal)
www.elevatorup.com (business)


On Sep 7, 2005, at 10:57 AM, Patrick Lauke wrote:

>> Lauke Patrick
>>
>
>
>> Aeh...maybe in a parallel universe. Over in this plane of reality,
>> we should try to stick to web standards.
>> http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/links.html#h-12.2
>>
>> As Christian rightly remembered: if it's not a link, don't mark it up
>> as one. What's so difficult about that concept?
>>
>
> On re-reading, I'd like to apologise for the overly flippant tone
> (though I still stand behind the actual message).
>
> Hope I didn't cause offense,
>
> Patrick
> ___________
> Patrick H. Lauke
> Webmaster / University of Salford
> http://www.salford.ac.uk
> ___________
> Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force
> http://webstandards.org/
> ___________
>
>
>
>