Building Accessibility Quotes/Tips List

[Webnauts]

Dear Accessibility Professionals, Advocates and Friends!

I would like to gather "Accessibility Tips/Quotes" to provide them here, on my web site and my forum as "Quote of the day" or "Quote of the week".

Therefore I would appreciate your tips/quotes!

That can be useful for all of us, or?

Thanks in advance for your kind support!

[Webnauts]

Care With Font Size
Forget <font>, use CSS: http://www.w3.org/2003/07/30-font-size

[Webnauts]

Use the alt attribute
What are alt attributes useful for and what should I put in my alt attribute? http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/altAttribute

[Webnauts]

Don't use "click here" as link text: http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/noClickHere

[Webnauts]

Use Tabindex: http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/TS/html401/...-TABINDEX.html

[Webnauts]

Creating an accessibility statement: http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day...statement.html

Writing and posting the accessibility policy: http://www.joeclark.org/book/sashay/...4.html#h2-1085

[Webnauts]

W3C Note - Acronyms and abbreviations http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-HTML-TECHS/#text-abbr

Why you should use acronyms and abbreviations http://www.accessify.com/tools-and-w...reviations.asp

The difference between acronyms and abbreviations http://www.accessify.com/archives/20....asp#200186538

Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Shortened Words http://brainstormsandraves.com/archi...t_64_acronyms/

Explaining abbreviations, acronyms and symbols on Web pages http://www.cs.tut.fi/%7Ejkorpela/html/abbr.html

[Webnauts]

DROP DOWN MENUS?
Some sites using drop-down menu, would reload the page if the for example line (-----------) is selected, which can disorientate or confuse the user.

Another issue is if the user is navigating with a keyboard, he type's the first letter, he is brought to the first word in the list that begin's with that letter. When there are more items with the same first letter, then the user has a problem. If he type's a second letter in the word he seek's, he goes to the first word that begin's with that letter.

That is why I am am convinced, that selection lists are much more accessible and usable!

Is it only my point of view?

Further reading:
Drop-Down Menus - Use Sparingly: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001112.html
Users have difficulties with dropdown, fly out and rollover menus: http://www.uie.com/Articles/what_they_want_article.htm

[Webnauts]

Use a skip over navigation link

Enhance your web site accessibility providing 'Skip to Content or Navigation' links.
And from the usability for accessibility point of view, it is recommended to make such links visible.

Why? Frank Gayne at infocentre.frontend.com explain's:

"You must consider people with other types of impairments in this context also. Ask whether or not skip links would be useful for people who cannot easily use a mouse? Many of these people depend on tabbing in order to make progress through an interface and might appreciate a skip links feature to lighten the amount of work they have to do. If there is no visible focus to let these people know they have hit a link then this useful feature is lost to them."

How can you build such links?

Immediately after the logo of your web site insert the skip link:

Skip over navigation


If this is done do one of the following, depending on the MarkUp Laguage you are using:

1. If you're using any variant of HTML 4, add this just before your main content:

<a name="content"></a>


2. If you are using any variant of XHTML 1.0, add this just before your main content:

<a name="content" id="content"></a>


3. If you are using XHTML 1.1, add this just before your main content:

<a id="startcontent"></a>

By the way, if it does not fit in your design, you could do them also invisible as described below.

1. Create a transparent graphic 1X1 pixels, and name it "spacer.gif".

2. At the top of you page add this: [img]spacer.gif[/img]

3. At the begining of your content add this: <a name="content" id="content"></a>


Another fact is, that many web sites have the "Skip Navigation" or "Skip to content" links, before the logo of the page.

But is that usable?

A logo is a precursor of a web page. It lets the user know what website he/she is on. You may have internal/external links on your page. If a "Screen Reader" user clicks an internal link, your logo's "alt tag" tells the user that he/she have not yet left your website.

If the skip navigation link is before this logo, then the user does not know immediately which website he/she is on.

For further reading:

Skip repetitive navigation links: http://oc.nci.nih.gov/web508/tip2.html
Skipping over navigation links: http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day...ion_links.html
Skip to Main Content Link: http://www.washington.edu/accessit/AU/tutorial/ins.html
Skip Navigation Links: http://www.cio-dpi.gc.ca/clf-upe/6/skip_e.asp

By John Britsios, Web Accessibility and Usability Consultant
Webnauts Net - http://www.webnauts.net

[Niko Holopainen]

Uhh, I think the "guidelines" as to what to do in the various instances was left out.

I'm adding the skip navigation link, that isn't normally visible thus the best manner of doing this would be appreciated.

Entering a visible "skip navigation" link would seem very ungainly for a page that's about 20kb in size but I will do so if it's deemed appropriate (it will break the visual layout).