home \| site index \| campus email
search

Web Accessibility - Priority 2

Web Accessibility: Priority 2

Web Accessibility: Style Sheets

Use Style Sheets to Stylize Text

Style sheets are one solution for text decoration and object placement because they separate content from layout. Unfortunately, style sheets are not consistently supported by all Web browsers.

Do not use bitmapped images to represent text; instead, use style sheets.

In the example:

areer

nformation

use style sheets rather than graphics for the stylistic C and I.

Use Style Sheets to Control Presentation

Distinguish between structural and presentational content and use style sheets to control presentation. To determine if content is structural or presentational, create an outline of the document. Each point in the hierarchy denotes a structural change. Use structural markup to mark structural changes; use presentational markup to make items more apparent visually.

For example:

Structural Mark-up	Presentational Mark-up
<STRONG>	<B> (bold)
<EM> (emphasis)	<I> (italics)
<H1>-<H6> (headings)	Style Sheets
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<UL> (unordered list)
<OL> (ordered list)
<DL> (definition list)
<LI> (list item)

Avoid Blinking Text

Use other ways to highlight text, such as presentational markup. For example, the following style sheet properties can be used to style text:

Case: "text-transform" (for uppercase, lowercase, and capitalization)

Underline, overline: "text-decoration"

If text must be highlighted by causing it to flash on and off, then use the style sheet 'text-decoration: blink' attribute. Using style sheets will allow users to stop the effect.