Hidden Information
Derek Featherstone writes about how many accessibility techniques provide information that is hidden from most users in the article Contradictions in Accessibility - Hidden Information.
In the article, he mentions that I don’t use title attributes to provide information about the links in my Quicklinks section, instead making that information available to everybody, all the time. That is exactly my reason for doing it that way. When I first added the Quicklinks section, I used title attributes, but found myself having to mouse over each link to see what I had written about it. I also felt that it wasn’t obvious that there even was a title attribute for each link, so I decided to just put the info on the page.
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About the author
Roger Johansson is a Swedish web professional specialising in web standards, accessibility, and usability. More about me and this site.
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Comments
Also, if you don't provide a title, the screenreaders will default to the text provided as the link, so as long as you have a meaningful link (rather than "Look at this!"), that will help.
But I really do like your method. It makes it quite easy to see and figure out what each link is.
In addition to the accessibility issues it fits nicely with my philosophy on content (and, I'm sure with yours as well!)
"What can I do to help people decide if they want to read more or not?"
Basically, help people make better, more informed decisions, quicker. The last thing we want is people following the link and being disappointed -- let them know up front what they are getting at the other end.
Great stuff you've got here... Cheers, Derek.
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