Breadcrumbs
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Heya - does anyone know of any research that has been done on the Accessibility of breadcrumbing in websites?
I've seen a bunch of articles that make reference to them, and stuff that refers to the Usability, but nothing on Accessibility specifically.
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I can only offer some second hand user feedback from a mobility impired tester I've worked with who finds them really useful for orientation. He has cerebral palsy and finds it difficult to focus on any point of the screen for too long and this helps. Breadcrumb trails and highlighting links on focus are on the top of his wish list._________________
Grant Broome
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Shaw Trust
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When designing them consider doing ">" as an image to save it being read out by the screen reader or simply separate the links with a comma instead of the ">"._________________
Johan De Silva / Portfolio | Place of Work @Flipside | Read my movie reviews punk!
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If you do the former, it won't resize with the text. So it won't be as easy for people using a large text size to recognise it as a breadcrumb trail. Zooming in IE7 and Opera might work, but those browsers are fairly rare.
If you do the latter, it won't be as easy for any sighted person to recognise it as a breadcrumb trail. The visual shape of the greater than sign (>) also provides a stronger indication of the breadcrumb's left-to-right ordering. It's also less appropriate than using greater than, since the links are "descendants" rather than "siblings" in the site heirarchy.
Separating breadcrumbs by using a comma seems like a bad idea, to me.
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My CV type thing and my Life of Ben (Blog). Nigel Peck's Accessify Forum Requirements.
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| Cerbera wrote: |
| If you do the latter, it won't be as easy for any sighted person to recognise it as a breadcrumb trail. The visual shape of the greater than sign (>) also provides a stronger indication of the breadcrumb's left-to-right ordering. It's also less appropriate than using greater than, since the links are "descendants" rather than "siblings" in the site heirarchy. |
In addition, for screen reader users, it'll get read out as "greater than" which actually reinforces the hierarchy (particularly for location breadcrumbs, and to a lesser extent for path or attribute breadcrumbs) and isn't hugely disruptive to the reading flow.
Comma doesn't give the same visual or auditory information and, in my opinion, looks weird when used for breadcrumbs.
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pix
http://www.pixeldiva.co.uk
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Has anyone any thoughts on using the term 'breadcrumb' to describe this sort of navigation? It's what web designers know it as but what about real users?
KL
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| Cerbera wrote: |
| If you do the former, it won't resize with the text. So it won't be as easy for people using a large text size to recognise it as a breadcrumb trail. Zooming in IE7 and Opera might work, but those browsers are fairly rare. |
IE7 is not a rare browser, I believe it is up to 20% usage at present.
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Mike Abbott
Accessible to everyone
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Images:
If the image does not resize visual impaired users will still see the separation because they should all be grouped with an underlining link and could also be labeled breadcrumbs that would help identify it.
Comma:
I admit because “>” is a standard a screen reader user will identify with it but I know first hand many would prefer a comma to speed things up and really it does not look at all bad when combined with a label...
BreadCrumbs: home, books, previews, Starting with A, ASP for Dummies
BreadCrumbs: home > books > previews > Starting with A > ASP for Dummies
home > books > previews > Starting with A > ASP for Dummies
home, books, previews, Starting with A, ASP for Dummies
From the above 4, I would say the bottom one is least desirable but the top one most desirable. I do not think the “>” is as strong as many of us think but could only be resolved with testing.
(note: obviously the actual HTML should be marked up using lists)
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Johan De Silva / Portfolio | Place of Work @Flipside | Read my movie reviews punk!
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| pixeldiva wrote: |
| Comma doesn't give the same visual or auditory information and, in my opinion, looks weird when used for breadcrumbs. |
We now use / as our breadcrumb (which is a misnoma in itself, but that's another topic*) delimiter. We used to use > or » but someone, somewhere persuaded me that a slash was the way to go.
* A couple of weeks ago I came across the first real breadcrumb trail I'd ever seen on a site, at Flintshire County Council.
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Dan Champion, Champion IS, Mooch Marketing, Revish
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| danchamp wrote: |
| * A couple of weeks ago I came across the first real breadcrumb trail I'd ever seen on a site, at Flintshire County Council. |
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Grant Broome
Blog
CDSM
Shaw Trust
Last edited by Grant Broome on 29 Jan 2007 12:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
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In the past I would have said >, but you're examples have swayed me towards a comma - especially if using "real" breadcrumbs where it seems much more appropriate.
| Johan007 wrote: |
| (note: obviously the actual HTML should be marked up using lists) |
Unordered, or ordered? Only it seems to me that there is an ordering here, making an ordered list the most appropriate mark-up. What do you think?
| KLewis wrote: |
| Has anyone any thoughts on using the term 'breadcrumb' to describe this sort of navigation? It's what web designers know it as but what about real users? |
I agree, it would be extremely interesting to know what usability testing has been done on this sort of navigation mechanism.
Last edited by Torsten on 29 Jan 2007 12:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
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I'd be swayed by Pix's and Cerbera's assessment that a greater than ">" is probably more appropriate.
I suspect you'd probably find quite a mixed opinion among screen reader users to the point where you'd need a large cross section to get any meaningful data.
I think there's a few things in favour of a ">"
1. It's the most common convention
2. It has more semantic meaning
3. In context when listened to, it's more identifiable (my theory) to screen readers as a breadcrumb trail
4. It's more identifiable (visually)
Having said all that, I know that some less experienced screen reader users can't make head or tail of the breadcrumb trail at all and don't understand what all the "greater thans" are all about; which again, in a sense, only reinforces the need to follow some type of convention.
Torsten, I suspect that a breadcrumb trail "list" wouldn't be all that useful as it strays from the breadcrumb trail convention and may be harder to identify.
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Grant Broome
Blog
CDSM
Shaw Trust
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| Grant Broome wrote: |
| I suspect that a breadcrumb trail "list" wouldn't be all that useful as it strays from the breadcrumb trail convention and may be harder to identify. |
personally, i've always favoured the list approach ( e.g. on http://www.salford.ac.uk/... )...not had any user feedback on it though unfortunately.
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Patrick H. Lauke / webmaster / University of Salford
co-lead: WaSP Accesibility Task Force
take it to the streets ... WaSP Street Team
personal: splintered | photographia | redux
co-author: Web Accessibility - Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance
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