Alex Jurgensen` wrote:
I am using Css to hide certain text that clutters the page and that ony sighted users could use such as the fact that the web browsing mode is a screen reader compliant mode. I litterly have "You are browsing "ICE" in Screen Reader Mode" at the top. I want to add a switch to advanced or standard mode links for sighted users that navigate to the screen reader mode of my page.
There's no reliable technique for hiding content from screen reader users. Mere text could be (very hackily) "hidden" by placing it in an image with alt="", but this will be invisible to some sighted users too. Normal links and controls would be very difficult to hide; JS-based fake controls might be easier to hide but won't be usable by all sighted users (not just because of the dependency on JS, but also because they won't necessarily be keyboard accessible).
All this is unneccesary to the blind user, as it is a separate service of the university than standard and advanced mode. Basically, my task is to make a screen reader specific page.
You're perhaps aware of the issues, but in general creating a screen reader specific mode is a suboptimal approach compared to fixing the other modes to work with assistive technology. See this discussion from RNIB:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_textbasedwebsites.hcsp -- Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis
