[Javascript] [Beginner] What is going on with my show/hide function?

[Paul Novitski]

At 11/13/2006 11:27 AM, Matt Warden wrote:
>Paul, this is exactly what Roger and I suggested. Take another look at
>the YUI link I provided.

You're absolutely right; my apologies for replying too quickly.


>>To reiterate an earlier point, toggling display apparently breaks in
>>some screen readers that don't report elements making the transition
>>from none to block or inline.
>
>This is a common misconception. This only happens in "virtual buffer
>mode" (every screen reader has a different name for this mode) and
>only when the transition is triggered by a "non-standard" action. If
>it happens upon link click, for example, there is no issue. If it
>happens upon some timeout and the reader is in virtual buffer mode,
>then it will notice no change (this is true whether the change is to
>display or anything else).

Thanks, Matt, I appreciate this revelation.  I'll take this back to my sources.


>>Does your page remain usable if the div doesn't hide?  If so, you can
>>toggle its visibility for sighted users by changing its position
>>while leaving it readable by non-visual user agents
>
>I see this a lot and I cant really think of an instance where I would
>want both to be visible to screen readers at the same time, but only
>one visible to sighted users. The only time I would use this is to
>provide additional instructions to screen reader users, or something.

I believe a typical application will keep the visual display compact 
-- say, by hiding the answers in a FAQ in order to keep a larger 
number of questions in a single screenload.

Regards,
Paul