Here are my top ten tips for designing accessible ASP.NET sites. These are based on my understanding and opinion. If I am radically wrong about any of these, please feel free to correct me by leaving a comment.
Always set the display of validation controls to ‘dynamic’
In this way, screen readers ignore the text of the error message when there is no error.
Do not use image buttons
They are invisible to screen readers. Use a button with a background image instead.
Do not use AutoPostBack
They are impossible to navigate using a keyboard.
Do not use separator characters between links
Characters in breadcrumbs, footers, etc. are read out by screen readers. Use a span instead with a style instead. Or better still, use a bulleted list with a background image.
Display sets of results or links in a bulleted list
In a landing page or search results page, having each result marked up as a bullet makes it easier to navigate between results.
Insert hidden header text at the start of every navigation list
Screen reader users can navigate by headers and choose to skip the navigation lists.
Surround the individual digits in telephone numbers with span tags
Otherwise, the whole number will be read out as a single value.
Use hidden images with pagination and other non-descriptive hyperlinks
If pagination links are in the format: 1 | 2 | 3, a screen reader will read the links as ‘link 1’, ‘link 2’ and so on. So, insert a hidden image that has the alt text set to something more descriptive.
Include file sizes and types in hyperlink text
Unwittingly clicking a link to a file attachment can cause confusion.
Don’t bother using access keys
They are device-dependent, they can conflict with other shortcut keys and there is no standardisation as to what each key combination should do. Better to have clear navigation.
Tuesday 14 July 2009
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