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

[Paul Novitski]

At 11/13/2006 02:27 PM, Matt Warden wrote:

>Sure, I've seen this. What I don't understand is why someone would
>think that the paradigm should be different for a blind user and a
>sighted user (i.e., show everything by default for a blind user and
>show only the questions by default for a sighted user).


Probably the most common reason is to keep the visual display 
compact.  How much material can fit in a screenload (or in any given 
amount of space) is a purely visual issue that can be addressed 
independently of the structural organization of content.

A tab control, for example, enables the user to navigate through 
multiple pages of content while remaining in a single apparent page 
framework.  An old home page of mine illustrated this: 
<http://novitskisoftware.com/nsindex.asp>  All of the content is 
always present, accessible through the nav menu using local anchors 
for non-visual users.  CSS makes it appear to be a series of separate 
pages that 'load' instantly.  (If you let the page completely load, 
javascript will take over from ASP to serve content based on nav menu 
selections.)

Here's another example of a page in which hovering over a thumbnail 
causes alternate content to display in the same space:
http://laurietobyedison.com/

Yet another example is the technique I'm using to toggle between 
Japanese and English on the same page:
http://laurietobyedison.com/WOJwords_FukuzawaJunko.asp?lang=EN
Again, I'm swapping the text within a static frame for visual users, 
while a non-visual user will simply see the English content followed 
by the Japanese.

Tooltips are an instance of content that is always there to be read 
by a screen-reader but isn't visible to a sighted user until she 
hovers over the element in question.  Again, I imagine the rationale 
behind their addition to the HTML vocabulary was to provide content 
that stays out of sight until called up in order to help keep the 
visual display simple and compact.

Regards,
Paul