Here's the rule of thumb concerning screen readers and "hidden content":
Start with it in place from the beginning, then hide it with javascript
once you run some tests to make sure it works (ie event handlers etc)
That way you are safe. Trying to create this interactivity with a
screenreader will only create a confusing experience.
This same rule should apply to any javascripting - always start with a
plain-jane page and enhance from there.
My 2 cents,
*Joseph R. B. Taylor*
Sites by Joe, LLC
/Custom Web Design & Development/
Phone: (609) 335-3076
www.sitesbyjoe.com <http://www.sitesbyjoe.com>
Steve Green wrote:
It is difficult to give a definitive opinion without seeing your
implementation but I have never seen a design of this kind that was
accessible to a screen reader if the content was displayed on hover.
I doubt that displaying it on focus would work either. JAWS (and some other
screen readers) works off its own object model so the links only receive
focus when they are clicked, not when they are read.
As it happens we are working on a site that uses this show/hide
functionality right now (we are only testing it, not designing it). Take a
look at http://www.makesenseofit.com/Retirement/All-the-info.aspx - I assume
this is the sort of thing you want to do. JAWS ignores the show/hide
functionality and always reads all the content whether the list is fully
visible or not.
In most cases this is the least confusing solution even though the user may
wonder what the 'view more'/'view less' links do. Dynamic content is almost
always a problem for screen readers no matter how it is designed, and
content that really does toggle on and off can be more confusing than links
that appear to do nothing.
I don't think that a facility to turn off the show/hide functionality would
be useful. You would have to explain what it was for, and at that point the
user has no way of deciding whether to turn it off or not.
The way you implement this could affect other user groups too. Can you be
more specific about what you want to do?
Steve Green
Director
Test Partners Ltd / First Accessibility
www.testpartners.co.uk
www.accessibility.co.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Rebecca Cox
Sent: 05 March 2007 22:27
To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org
Subject: [WSG] Screen reader friendly show/hide dhtml
Hi all,
I've got a couple of questions regarding DHTML and how to ensure content is
accessible & usable via screen reader.
Say you have a web page with a link to "Subscribe to updates" - when the
user hovers on the link, a form would be displayed below (standard dhtml
show/hide). The form would be in the HTML source on page load, hidden using
CSS.
My questions on this are:
1. If we displayed the content on focus as well as on hover, would this make
it screen reader usable?
2. Alternatively, we could make clicking on the link (rather than, or as
well as, on focus) display the content and take you to it (ie use an anchor
on the page).
2. Does reading out the link (for screen readers) give it focus?
3. If we had (at top of page, with the skip link) a facility to turn off the
show/hide functionality, (using a cookie) would this be useful?
If anyone has comments, suggestions etc they could pass on to me about this,
it would be greatly appreciated:)
Regards,
Rebecca Cox
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