Re: DHTML and accessibility

Hi Dominique

Another point to consider, in addition to the excellent info already
provided by others, is what happens when a user needs to set their own text
and background colours, overriding the colours specified on the page.  If
the submenus consist of text, the background to the submenu becomes
transparent, resulting in any content which is positioned "behind" the
submenu showing through, making the submenu almost impossible to read.  This
is unfortunately the result of how the current graphic browsers (like
Internet Explorer, Netscape and Opera) handle user defined colour schemes.

If anyone out there has found a solution to this (i.e. making it possible
for a user to define their own text and background colours, set their
browser to ignore the colours defined in the page, and still get DHTML
layered menus to display with an opaque background) I'd truly love to know,
as it's a problem I've wrestled with for some time.

The best solution I've been able to come up with so far is to recommend that
the user is provided with a mechanism whereby they can turn DHTML menus off
on that site, and simply use the top level menu as a standard site menu to
navigate into the site.  Not perfect, but at least it enables users who use
their own colour scheme to avoid the visual assault of transparent
popup/dropdown/etc menus (when personalised colour scheme is combined with
screen magnification, it can look truly horrendous!).

Regards,
Donna
--
Donna Smillie
Best Practice Officer (Accessible Websites)
RNIB, UK
http://www.rnib.org.uk/digital/siraccess/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dominique Clawson" <Dominique.Clawson(at)colorado.edu>
To: <aware-techniques(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 4:25 PM
Subject: DHTML and accessibility


> Hello:
>
> My question is: how does a reader read a submenu that's triggered from
> JavaScript and is located on another layer?
>
> This also brings me to the following question: are layers readable by a
> screen reader.  I use Dreamweaver and use a lot of layers but I don't
> convert them to tables.
> W3C discourages the use of tables and favors instead the positioning of
> elements with CSS.
>
> I'm getting ready to redesign our site completely (Yippee!!!). I have a
plan
> to have a PLAN, instead of cleaning up later. (-:
>
> Thanks for your thoughts and comments,
>
> Dominique

HWG: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA