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[28/03/2010] Web Design for the Mobility
As you consider regarding this the Mobility mutilation is not always clear. The disability limits like missing limbs or paralysis should not be imagined. You should try to visualize concerning a simple drop or other mishap, which results in both hands in a shed and not capable to use a mouse. And after this, with that imagination bearing in mind opens your website, place an unsharpened pencil in your mouth, then use your eraser to push Tab key until you got the contents of home page. A click on the ENTER key gets you to the main content with a correctly placed "skipnav" and one TAB key click gets you to the link. This something called accessibility.
A link located at the very start of the page (earlier than any other page content) is Skipnav, which permits a user to pass over all the top-bar and sidebar navigation links and move directly to the main content. Usually it is a simple text link located either in the start of the header or in a split DIV preceding to the header. And it is one of the extremely few pieces of page content regarded as satisfactory for wrapping (using CSS to size it or glide it off-screen to make it hidden to the user or matching text color for the background.)
The limited mobility of web design also contains inspection of your scripts to see if your behaviors like mouse-centric. Try to go around in your site with no use your mouse. Keyboards are not perfect for resultant of all mouse events, but the main ones are only fundamental. As you have a CLICK event, put in the exact KEYPRESS event. And if you have a MOUSEOVER event, insert the matching FOCUS event. If you have a MOUSEOUT event as well, insert the similar BLUR event. Ease of access is concerning to make the page more useful to everyone despite of how they find to it or how they have to find it approximately.
The significance of the anchor tag of ACCESSKEY is a further good and far underused feature to attach with your navigation system. Although it is not presently supported in a number of browsers and their versions, as this is one of that things which does not harm your page by the presence. The browsers which do not support overlook them. The users who hold the ALT key (the CONTROL key for the users of Mac) and push the particular, single, alphanumeric character to either set focus on or to activate a link depending on your browser. For primary site navigation you are permitted to set keyboard shortcuts.
Some other features of mobility impairment associated to computer usage and might not occur to you at beginning. These comprise with slowed reflexes, lack of coordination, trembles, ticks, palsy, arthritis, and everything as well that can make a user's hand more uncooperative. I, as such, have a hard time double-clicking quick enough (because of nerve damage) for the computer to register this one.
