I applaud your efforts and your note to the list. You made it right. That
really is a great thing to see.

I have a suggestion for you. This is a USABILITY issue and not an
ACCESSIBILITY issue. I hope all of you will take a look at the URL in the
reply message below.

Users who are MOUSE INDEPENDENT, use the tab key to navigate through
links.I want the brave to put your mouse down. better still, hide it. Click
on the URL in the sig below. Count how many times you hit the tab key to
get to the main part of the page.

Imagine clicking on several of the buttons on the left, only to have to tab
through all those links to get to the main part of the page  AGAIN.

SIMPLE SOLUTION. It takes all of a minute to do it to each page.

Use a jump link called Skip Navbar, which is a link either in text of an
image with an ALT tag, that jumps the user to the main part of the page.

EASI uses two such jump links. If you look at the EASI page, you will
notice that we have an image with the EASI in white and an arow like a goad
sign. That image has a jump link to the first link past the top navbar. At
the bottom of the page there is a link called Navigation Bar. That link
goes to the top of the page and the navbar.

Again, is the page accessible WITHOUT the jump links. Just like the link in
the sig below, sure. This is just one very simple USABILITY thing you can use.

I hope that all will remember that usability is really important.

Dick


At 03:37 PM 2/27/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>It was brought to our attention that there has been some discussion on
>the list regarding major access barriers on the pages leading to our
>e-Publications and Webcasts.  ACRL has taken the first step in
>correcting this problem by adding "ALT" tags to all of the graphics on
>these pages, many of which are button menu items that lead you deeper
>into the site.  We hope that this will enable individuals to better make
>their way through to the e-Pubs and Webcasts.  We are continuing to look
>at ways of improving the pages and regret that this was not dealt with
>from the outset.  Both of the products are housed on a vendor site and
>we were not as vigilant as we should have been in ensuring that
>accessibility guidelines were met.
>
>Please let me know if you have any suggestions for further improving
>these pages.  Thank you for your patience and concern.
>
>
>Stephanie Orphan
>Web Product Development Specialist
>ACRL
>50 E. Huron St.
>Chicago, IL  60611
>ph: 312-280-2511, fax: 312-280-2520
>[log in to unmask]
>http://www.ala.org/acrl/

Dick Banks
CIO - EASI
Equal Access to Software and Information
http://easi.cc