Comments on: WebAIM Survey Shines Light on Screen Reader Usage http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/02/12/webaim-survey/ The official blog of the YUI Project. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:46:52 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Victor http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/02/12/webaim-survey/comment-page-1/#comment-569344 Victor Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:29:36 +0000 http://yuiblog.com/blog/2009/02/12/webaim-survey/#comment-569344 Steven, You will find that there are users who will prefer navigation before the content and not vice versa, myself is a good example of such a user :). Again, there is no one particular way people browse or process web pages. Regarding your question about nested lists: 1. Screen readers are very good at parsing and understanding ordered, unordered and definition lists, nested or otherwise. 2. With ordered lists, screen readers will follow HTML instructions by prepanding the particular list item with its corresponding number. Most popular screen readers, such as JAWS and Window-eyes, will also recognize the type of list being used, e.g. roman numerals, outline or standard numbers. 3. When nested lists are encountered, screen readers will indicate the level of the list, e.g. list of 3 items Guitars list of 2 items nesting level 1 Acoustic Electric list end nesting level 1 Keyboards list of 2 items nesting level 1 Rhodes piano Grand piano list end nesting level 1 Percussion list of 2 items nesting level 1 Tablas Rainstick list end nesting level 1 list end Some will go as far as announcing how many nested lists a particular list contains etc. 4. The user can navigate between lists either list by list or item by item of a particular list. Hope this sheds some light. Steven,
You will find that there are users who will prefer navigation before the content and not vice versa, myself is a good example of such a user :). Again, there is no one particular way people browse or process web pages.

Regarding your question about nested lists:
1. Screen readers are very good at parsing and understanding ordered, unordered and definition lists, nested or otherwise.
2. With ordered lists, screen readers will follow HTML instructions by prepanding the particular list item with its corresponding number. Most popular screen readers, such as JAWS and Window-eyes, will also recognize the type of list being used, e.g. roman numerals, outline or standard numbers.
3. When nested lists are encountered, screen readers will indicate the level of the list, e.g.

list of 3 items
Guitars
list of 2 items nesting level 1
Acoustic
Electric
list end nesting level 1
Keyboards
list of 2 items nesting level 1
Rhodes piano
Grand piano
list end nesting level 1
Percussion
list of 2 items nesting level 1
Tablas
Rainstick
list end nesting level 1
list end

Some will go as far as announcing how many nested lists a particular list contains etc.

4. The user can navigate between lists either list by list or item by item of a particular list.

Hope this sheds some light.

]]> By: Steven http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2009/02/12/webaim-survey/comment-page-1/#comment-568391 Steven Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:10:08 +0000 http://yuiblog.com/blog/2009/02/12/webaim-survey/#comment-568391 Better than "skip to content" is to actually put your content at the beginning. A content-is-king-mentality layout goes like this: 1. page title 2. 3 or 4 useful links (like 'skip to ...') 3. content (with good headings) 4. relevant navigation 5. more in-depth navigation 6. other superflous elements (content is king) I know with certain page designs, this ideal structure is possible, but as CSS this will as well - right now content order almost always must be arranged to fit the visual design, i.e. navigation or side content coming before the main content. One thing I would really like to know about is nested lists - how do screen readers (and their users) read them? can they easily see the main list items (1, 2, 3) and 'skip' over the sub-list items in a recursive list? Better than “skip to content” is to actually put your content at the beginning. A content-is-king-mentality layout goes like this:

1. page title
2. 3 or 4 useful links (like ‘skip to …’)
3. content (with good headings)
4. relevant navigation
5. more in-depth navigation
6. other superflous elements (content is king)

I know with certain page designs, this ideal structure is possible, but as CSS this will as well – right now content order almost always must be arranged to fit the visual design, i.e. navigation or side content coming before the main content.

One thing I would really like to know about is nested lists – how do screen readers (and their users) read them? can they easily see the main list items (1, 2, 3) and ‘skip’ over the sub-list items in a recursive list?

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