Styles: advice on the positioning of the Navigation module

[ninetydegrees]

Hi,

I'm a style developer and I would like to ask the advice of screenreader users about the positioning of the Navigation module (i.e. links to Recent Entries, Reading, Archive, etc.). Several styles display this module in the 'header' area. However, its actual place in the source code varies from one style to another and I'd like to know what the optimum place is for you. Let me link you to examples:

1) Link to example 1. This is the Transmogrified style. In the source code, the navigation module is below the journal title. It's also displayed there.

2) Link to example 2. This is Modular. In the source code, the module is above the journal title and subtitles. It's also displayed there.

3) Link to example 3. This is Bases. In the source code, the module is below entries while it's displayed above entries, below the journal title and subtitles.

4) Link to example 4. This is Crossroads. In the source code, the module is in the sidebar, below the profile module by default while it's displayed at the top of the page, above the journal title and subtitles.

Would you tell me what the best place is for you, please? Suggestions and ideas about other possibilities are welcome, of course. :)

Comments

[ninetydegrees]

I would like to see the navigation module always displayed with a header, and the same header (same text and same header level)

Can you explain what you mean by that?

I have no idea how styles work internally, but is the navigation module currently generated using a "display navigation module here" type of general code or is each link included separately by theme designers

It's automatically generated. Designers don't code it manually. And it's always in a list format.

[deborah]

The navigation module (and for that matter, all of the modules, but especially the important navigation module) could always show up with, for example, <h4>Navigation</h4>. (Or whatever the appropriate header level is.) Style designers could make it vanish with the "invisible" class we put into lj_base.css, which hides text from screenreaders.

The benefit of this is that screenreader users always know what header to search for if they want to find the navigation, even if it is in the wrong place. Searching for headers and navigating that way is a standard part of all of the screenreaders I know about. For example, in JAWS, insert + f6 will bring up a list of all of the headings and the JAWS user can navigate directly to them. Navigation is eased if the user knows what heading level to be looking for.

[ninetydegrees]

Oh the way you did it with comment headers in bug 989, then.
Would that make the positioning issue pointless then? Because I was kinda hoping for more answers to my question... ;)

[deborah]

I'm going to go and advertise this community in a few relevant places, because I think we need more participants. :-)

I'm sure you saw me ask lightgetsin upstream for the answer to your specific question.

[jeshyr]

Thanks for advertising us, Deborah, I have been meaning to do so for AGES and just not got a round tuit.

*hugs*
r

[jeshyr]

Just for reference, what I meant was exactly what Deborah wrote about using >h4>Navigation>/h4> or whatever as well as the list format. :)