I admit it's been a while since I used the FIR technique, mostly because I was
leery about how screen readers handle display:none. According to Joe Clarke in
a 2003 article in A List Apart, different screen readers handle an
non-displayed element differently, with some speaking it out loud, and others
not at all.
I have now started developing in ASP.NET, and I have noticed that much of the
interactivity of the framework is derived from having certain elements turned
off with display:none, and then using javascript to turn them back on.
So, as an example I have a validation summary control at the beginning of my
content area like this:
<div id="validationSummary" style="display:none">
You have some errors on your form.
</div>
By default, the error message won't be rendered, but if an error is caught
during validation, javascript will turn on the message so people can be
apprised of the error.
My question is do screen readers, I believe Jaws in particular, still read out
non-displayed elements? I imagine if a blind user was told they had errors on a
form to which they had just arrived could lead to a bit of confusion.
I haven't seen much in the way of guidance on this in the past couple years,
have any more concrete conclusions been arrived to? Have aural styles really
gone the way of the dodo?
Regards,
Chris
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