Re: Bobby and link separators

Hi Rob,

I took the same thing up with Bobby before Watchfire bought it - below is an
extract of the conversation in case it helps (in reverse order).

(I fixed similar problems by using the @import trick to hide separators in
CSS compliant browsers, and showing a visible pipe character for non-CSS
ones.)

Lois Wakeman
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http://lois.co.uk
http://siteusability.com
http://communicationarts.co.uk
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them: Hi - Brian's away but I'll pick this up.

I think you raise a good point, an image with alt text that is not purely
spacer characters should be counted as a valid link separator. It's an
oversight that we didn't catch that earlier, and we'll schedule that change.
Meanwhile, I think you can go ahead with your preferred design, even though
Bobby flags it at the moment.

Michael Cooper
Bobby Project Manager, CAST, Inc.
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me:
>Our understanding is also that adjacent image links need separation,
however an image should separate regular links.<

Yes - I think we are saying the same thing, which is why I was surprised
that code like this:

<.a title="writing services " href="services.html">services<./a> <.img
src="images/dot.gif" width="9" height="11" alt="|" border="0" /> <.a
title="typical costs" href="costs.html">costs<./a>

prevents level 3 compliance on the basis of directly adjacent links. Perhaps
I have misunderstood either the Bobby message or what you were saying?
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them: We agree that changes should not be made just to pass an automatic
checker, even for optional Priority 3 items such as link separators.

Separators which are hidden by CSS appear to be ok since most assistive
browsers don't implement CSS and thus will 'see' the hidden item.  Our
interpretation of the guidelines is that 'new-lines' are not acceptable
separators.  Images may have null alt="" to avoid their alt text being read.

Our understanding is also that adjacent image links need separation, however
an image should separate regular links.

Brian Matheny
Bobby Technical Support, CAST, Inc.
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me:
I have a couple of questions about link separators. From a page that I
validated with Bobby, it seems that new paragraphs do not count as
separators between adjacent links. I can improve this by putting CSS-hidden
elements in the page: is this acceptable?

I was more puzzled why images with ALT texts, in a navigation bar, do not
count. I would appreciate guidance here, because I think that by adding,
say, a hidden span to duplicate the alternate for the image for non-CSS
browsers, I will actually decrease accessibility, because, I imagine, you'd
hear <.link> <.alt text> <.hidden span text> <.link> - more noise between
the links, surely?

I am loathe to do things just to get the Bobby logo if I then make things
more difficult for the people I am trying to help! Guidance would be
appreciated.

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