----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Cooper" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2003 5:45 PM
Subject: Usage of links in HTML



A subgroup of the Guidelines Working Group is reviewing techniques to make
HTML pages accessible, associated with work on Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 2.0. In a recent meeting we discussed several suggestions for
hyperlinks in HTML pages. We determined that we need more information about
how people with screen readers use links before we solidify some of the
proposed techniques.

I would like to solicit descriptions from users of screen readers or other
assistive technologies how you use hyperlinks when browsing Web pages.
Please describe whatever seems relevant, but to help focus your thoughts
there are some starter questions below. Feel free to respond on or off the
list as you prefer.

Questions:

Do you use a links list dialog to use links without reading the rest of the
page content? If so, how often and in what circumstances?

Do you tab among the links on a page? If you encounter ambiguous links, is
it easy to explore the surrounding context to clarify the link?

When you read a page and encounter links, what characteristics of the link
or page affect how you use links?

Do the links provide you with information or do they serve a purely
navigational function? If they provide information, what kind? In what
circumstances do you seek to use links in this way?

What characteristics of links are particularly helpful or problematic for
you as you use them? For example, the content of the link text,
supplementary title attributes, links with common stock text like "click
here" or "read more", links without any link text, multiple links sharing
the same link text, etc.

Are links most useful when grouped into navigation bars, or when embedded
into the text flow?

Thank you for your help - Michael

Michael Cooper
Accessibility Project Manager
Watchfire
1 Hines Rd
Kanata, ON  K2K 3C7
Canada
+1 613 599 3888 x4019
http://bobby.watchfire.com/


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