[thelist] Layout stability

Lee Kowalkowski lee.kowalkowski at googlemail.com
Wed Nov 7 03:44:43 CST 2007


On 06/11/2007, DAVOUD TOHIDY <dtohidy at hotmail.com> wrote:
> I would like to invite coders and designers to consider coding for  "layout stability" to increase the readability and usability of web content.

That's commendable.

> Please visit my portfolio at http://cssfreelancer.awardspace.com .
>
> I am wondering what your opinion is about it.  Would you please provide a feedback?

In addition to the feedback you've already received, I wonder why you
think CSS-only drop-downs are more accessible and usable than those
that use [unobtrusive] JavaScript?

Until :hover, :focus and :active can support a delay, I don't see how
it can be and more usable.  It's quite annoying having to tab through
every link in 3 dropdowns to get to an item in the 4th (therefore not
great for users that are unable to use a mouse).

Currently, if you were going to use drop-downs at all, I would say
using JavaScript to delay the exposure of hidden menus (so they can be
skipped by tabbing past them) was crucial.

The screen-reader angle is rather moot, as using display:none would
hide content no matter whether you used CSS or JavaScript.  If one can
devise an accessible way of hiding/revealing content for a
screen-reader (perhaps by not hiding it but moving it off-screen,
which is not appropriate, because they'll still appear in the tabbing
order), I think you'd be able to achieve it in either CSS or
JavaScript.

-- 
Lee



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