[uf-discuss] hyperlink include-pattern - keyboard issue

Patrick H. Lauke redux at splintered.co.uk
Tue May 1 09:47:53 PDT 2007


I edited the page on the wiki, but thought I'd bring it up here as well
http://microformats.org/wiki/include-pattern-feedback#Hyperlink_Include_-_issues_for_keyboard_users_.28including_Screen_Reader_users.29

"Although invisible in visual user agents, and (according to the JAWS 
7.0 test below) not spoken by screen readers (at least not by JAWS 7.0), 
empty links are still contained in the normal tab cycle. Users 
navigating via keyboard (or equivalent, e.g. switch access, puff/blow 
devices, etc) will still need to tab through the empty links (tested in 
Firefox 2.0, IE 6, IE 7; Opera 9.2 seems to remove empty links from tab 
cycle).

This can be verified by modifying the test page below, adding a regular 
link at the end of the 5 variations of empty links. It takes a user 6 
tabs to arrive at the "real" link. It would therefore be advisable to 
rethink the approach, or scrap it completely."

P
-- 
Patrick H. Lauke
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