Main Menu: Problematic Web Features: Page 1 2 3

Working from a Frame of Reference

Frames are problematic for people using screen readers; although, they are often useful for people with nerve and motor disorders. Many graphics-based web editing tools provide a mechanism for building frames. Unfortunately, they often name the frameset panes with unintelligible names like "r24c236t" or "67828." These default names are handy for the designer, but useless to the blind visitor who uses a screen reader to navigate.

In addition to this problem, many web designers give their frames names like "top," or "footer," or "right." These names don't tell the blind visitor the kinds of information they might find in the frame and so limit the utility of the screen reader. Frames should be properly named with content-oriented descriptive names (e.g., "navigation," "content," "links") -- not with positional frame identifiers (e.g., "top," "right," "main"). This is one of those simple things to do when developing a site but can be terribly tedious when retrofitting a site.