Hi Andrew

> On the page
>
> http://www.tolkiensociety.org/ts_info/amonhen.html
>
> (just as an example), the two image links at the bottom of the page are
separated with a clear pixel image, so that two links are not adjacent with
nothing but a space character between them. Bobby still questions this. I
don't know what is the reason for the requirement to have something other
than a space between links. Is it that a clear visible character is
required, or is it something to do with screen readers needing something to
stop on between reading out links?

The reason for the requirement is that old screen readers don't recognise
"white space" (e.g. a space or a line break), and so can't split up adjacent
links which are separated only by white space - all of the adjacent links
are treated as a single link, making it impossible for the user to access
the other links.  (Note: I'm not 100% certain, but I believe this is no
longer a problem in any recent versions of the various screen readers out
there).  I think, however, that what Bobby might be flagging is actually the
lack of anything other than a line break separating the graphic TOP link and
the text HOME link on the next line.  You could add another clear pixel
image after the TOP link to split it up from the HOME link.

> As a supplementary question, does anyone have any idea whether it is best
to use <.abbr> tags or not in case of authors names, where I either don't
know what the initials stand for, or they are quite irrelevant, or they
don't stand for anything in the case of a pen name?

I'd suggest not using the ABBR tag for this.  While initials are certainly
abbreviations of a sort, names are generally given in a specific format that
depends on the authors preference, and it's quite appropriate to present
them in that format to all users.  So, for example, if I generally signed my
emails "D. Smillie" it would be appropriate to leave it like that if you
were referring to something I wrote (e.g. "On xxx date, D. Smillie wrote
that ... etc), without using the ABBR tag to expand the initial D.

HTH!

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

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