Archive for February, 2012

HTML5 Accessibility: aria-hidden and role=”presentation”

It’s a common design pattern, seen multiple times a day: a thumbnail image and Headline, both linked to the same URL. We’ve seen this pattern for so long now that most sighted users know, instinctively, that clicking on either the thumbnail or the Headline takes them to the same location. However the code developers use to achieve this is a bit of a mess, and for non-sighted users or keyboard-only users, the User Experience (UX) leaves a lot to be desired: duplicate links announced for each article, and excessive tabbing through the content. It would appear that either aria-hidden="true" or role="presentation" should be able to help out here.

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Guideline for Ensuring Accessibility Success

I originally wrote this a couple of years ago, and decided that I should now share it more widely. I have edited the original to better reflect a wider audience.

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