<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:12pt"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Apologies for not replying sooner, I've been struck with a bit of the flu.<br><br>The problem I'm trying to solve is the case where you need descriptive text for screen readers but that text is not necessary for sighted users. For example, our accessibility guidelines at Yahoo! say that every unordered list (<ul>) should be preceeded by a header that describes its use. The header may say something like "Page options" or "Available styles" and we use CSS tricks (text-indent: -10000px;) to hide these headings from display while allowing screen readers to read them. To sighted users, the meaning of the list is apparent because they can see the visual treatments we've applied whereas blind users would just hear a
list read out of context.<br><br>Another example is for buttons that make use of sprites. Something is implemented as a link but with a background image that's part of a sprite. The link needs to have descriptive text for screen readers but the text is unnecessary for sighted users as they can see the image. For example:<br><br><a href="#" class="close"><span>Close</span></a><br><br>For things like this, I usually end up using the same CSS trick mentioned above to move the "Close" text out of the way. Just looking at the HTML, it's not apparent that "Close" is not intended to seen. Whereas the following clears it up:<br><br><a href="#" class="close"><span noview>Close</span></a><br>
<br>Now I know from looking at the source code that "Close" is clearly not intended to be seen.<br><br>-Nicholas<br><br><br><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch><br>To: Nicholas C. Zakas <html@nczonline.net><br>Cc: whatwg List <whatwg@whatwg.org><br>Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 6:36:17 PM<br>Subject: Re: [whatwg] [HTML5] Accessibility question<br><br>
On
Sun,
16
Mar
2008,
Nicholas
C.
Zakas
wrote:<br>><br>>
I
know
the
topic
has
come
up
a
few
times,
but
I'm
still
wondering
if <br>>
HTML
5
should
provide
some
sort
of
logic
around
content
that
should
not <br>>
be
displayed
by
browsers
but
should
be
read
by
screen
readers.
Perhaps
a <br>>
"noview"
boolean
attribute
on
each
element
could
be
used
to
tell
UAs
not <br>>
to
render
the
content
but
to
report
it
to
screen
readers?
Or
maybe
a <br>>
<noview/>
element
could
be
used
to
surround
content
that
shouldn't
be <br>>
displayed
but
should
be
accessible
to
screen
readers?<br><br>Wouldn't
hiding
content
from
sighted
viewers
hurt
accessibility
for <br>sighted
viewers?<br><br>Could
you
elaborate
more
on
what
problem
you
are
trying
to
solve?<br><br>-- <br>Ian
Hickson
U+1047E
)\._.,--....,'``.
fL<br><a href="http://ln.hixie.ch/" target="_blank">http://ln.hixie.ch/</a>
U+263A
/,
_..
\
_\
;`._
,.<br>Things
that
are
impossible
just
take
longer.
`._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'<br><br></div><br></div></div><br>
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