Avoiding Repetition In Lists Of Links
When linking to documents in proprietary formats (such as PDF documents), some pages present the link as:
“PDF Document name (300KB)”
On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with that. The user is being presented with all of the necessary information - document format; document name and document size.
Now imagine you’re using a screenreader to read a list containing a dozen different links to PDF files.
“PDF…”
“PDF…”
“PDF…”
“PDF…”
…
It’s not difficult to see that this could get very tedious very quickly.
Screenreader users, in common with sighted users, like to rapidly scan links and then, when they find something of interest, focus on the full link text properly. Based upon the idea of presenting the most important piece of information first, it follows that a better way of presenting these links would be:
“Document name PDF (300KB)”
This will allow all users, but especially screenreader users, to scan the list far more quickly and without all of the original repetition.
However, don’t forget that when linking to documents in proprietary formats, you should also provide a link to the appropriate plug-in or reader. Again, to avoid unecessary repetition, it may be advisable to do so via a single link at the top of the page on pages containing significant numbers of such documents.
With thanks to Grant Broome and the GAWDS mailing list.