Flanking Menus

With the popularity of three column layouts, this layout is bound to be useful to many. The technique used here is a mofied version of one posted by Ryan Brill on Mezzoblue recently.

An important benefit of this technique is the order of elements in the HTML source. Here, the order is essentially content, menu one, menu two. For old browsers, text-only browsers, screen-readers, and many alternative devices, this means that the content is displayed before the menus. And, after all, most users visit a page for its content.

The original BlueRobot design has been modified by adding standard HTML accessibility mark-up. Access keys need to be assigned, there is no real standard but Joe Clark offers some tips. A link has also been added to an accessibility statement - just a few line of text that describes access keys and other accessibility features of the site. Have a look at Accessiblity Works statement for an idea.

I have produced a series of modified W3C logos to show compliance. Please remember to check you have updated the accessibility features (tab order, access keys etc.) before you display the WAI icon.

The left menu has also been updated to the standard HTML asscociated with Listamatic meaning styling the navigation of the site is easy - just choose one of the many designs from Listamatic.

< Return to the Layout Reservoir  ::  Download the layout ::  Accessibility Statement