That looks ok, Mike.

Remember to ensure markup logical blocks with <div> tags to separate out the
sections else you'll run into trouble with nested headers.

I'd be inclined not to overdo the h4 (external) link headings unless you've
got good reason to emphasise them. I use blocks of links on my resources
pages categorised by h3 (although it could be any sequentially relevant)
heading levels then non-headed outbound links as unordered lists.

You may also want to consider incorporate 2 additional hidden links: jump to
main menu and jump to content. These can be off-page (utilising negative
margins) and should appear immediately after the opening body tag. My
preferred method is to make them pop-up in CSS should users tab into them;
they get a visual clue that they've entered tab navigation and are given the
immediate option to get to what they want. Handy for vision impaired or
motor-impaired keyboard-only users.

It's also important to use tabbed highlights. This can help enormously when
navigating complex, copy-intense pages. You'll make use of the a:focus event
for Gecko browsers and the a:active event for Explorer. Keep the Explorer
event in a separate CSS include which can be called up using the proprietary
IE conditional clause like --

<!--[if IE]><link rel="stylesheet" href="css/domain_ie.css" type="text/css"
media="all" /><![endif]-->

You can see the effect of the above suggestion on
http://www.seowebsitepromotion.com/resources.htm.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Mike Foskett
Sent: 07 July 2004 15:55
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: RE: [WSG]headers


Drew, Mike,

So, if I get this right then technically speaking:

<title>Page name - Site name</title>

  <div>Site name</div>                   [not visible & 2nd part of the
<title> - Placed behind an image of the same]

  <h1>Content (Page name) heading</h1>   [visible & 1st part of the <title>]

      <h2></h2>                          [repeat as required keeping all sub
headings in the correct order]
          <h3></h3>
      <h2></h2>
          <h3></h3>
              <h4></h4>
          <h3></h3>
      <h2></h2>

  <div>
    <span>Navigation</span>              [not visible, <span> is of no use
to no-vision, but okay for lo-vision, users]
    [list of links]
  </div>

    <div>
      <span>External links</span>        [not visible]
      <h2>link heading</h2>              [this heading has to be a h2
because you cannot guarantee a h2 in the content]
        [text & link]
      <h2>link heading</h2>
        [text & link]
    </div>

  <div>
    <span>Footer links</span>            [not visible]
    [list of links]
  </div>


Note: [not visible] means you cannot see it but neither "visibility:hidden"
nor "display:none" are used.


Hmm.


I have observed vision-impaired users skipping through <h?> tags as the
preferred method of navigating a page.
The tendency is not to use the access keys even though they happily know
they are there.
This is due I believe to inconsistencies in the declarations, and
availability, on pages world-wide.

My concern is now that by removing the <h?> tags from the navigation
sections, I'm actually making the page a lot less accessible.

For the best compromise while keeping it all accessible, I'm now
considering:

<title>Page name - Site name</title>

  <div>Site name</div>                   [not visible & 2nd part of the
<title> - Placed behind an image of the same]

  <h1>Content (Page name) heading</h1>   [visible & 1st part of the <title>]

      <h2></h2>                          [repeat as required, keeping all
sub headings in the correct order]
          <h3></h3>
      <h2></h2>
          <h3></h3>
              <h4></h4>
          <h3></h3>
      <h2></h2>

      <h2>Navigation</h2>                [not visible, <h2> is good for both
no-vision and lo-vision users]
        [list of links]

          <h3>External links</h3>        [not visible]
              <h4>link heading</h4>
                [text & link]
              <h4>link heading</h4>
                [text & link]

          <h3>Footer links</h3>          [not visible]
            [list of links]



Would that be in my best interest and a good balance?



mike 2k:)2






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