Accesibility and display:none

Is it ok to use display:none if no text is inside it?

[stuijts]

I'm quite new at this forum - so first a "hello" to all.

I'm optimising websites since 2000, and at the moment I'm doing an online workshop reg. Accesibility (German).

In which I am now confronted with following statement:
---------------
In Germany we have a law reg. accesibility, that says:
"Hyperlinks next to eachother have to be seperated by printable signs, which have a space on each side"

In Germay the "printable" sign that has become common is the "pipe" ¦

The Code to use this:
<a href="#">Linktext</a> <span style="display:none;">¦</span> <br>
---------------
I could imagine, using this code too much, would be a risk reg. spamming. Or is it ok, as long as there's no text inside it?

Reg,
Birthe

[ciml]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, Birthe.

I don't see how we could discount all possibility of a display:none filter being tripped, but I would hope that any search engine trying to spot that type of hidden text would not use something so crude as to be fooled by a vertical bar character.

[claus]

i think it might be a good idea to put the visibility-tag in a style class in stead and then to refer to this class, like, say

<style type="text/css">
.separator {visibility: hidden;}
</style>

<a href="a">a</a> <span class="separator">¦</span>

That way, at least you will not get your code filled with the visibility tags, as you probably use them often.

/claus

<edit>Oh, you can still use "display:none" of course... </edit>

[waldemar]

Welcome to WW, stuijts

Priority II, 10.5? :-)

Have you tried other delimiters that may look good in your design? Like &ndash; or &middot;?

[stuijts]

@ciml: I don't like to "hope" and then find myself banned... I want to be sure I'm ok with what I'm doing.

@claus: even if I use a css-file, it still has "hidden" or display:none... And still has my concerns...

@waldemar: yes, that's it.
At the moment I'm trying to look at other possibilities that fit into the design - unfortunately until now nothing worked without "breaking" the layout. But that's an issue for another forum, I guess ;-)

[claus]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld stuijts :)

Sorry about forgetting that part. The thing is that there seems to be some understanding that, well, stylesheets are just not the kind of food that spiders prefer to eat, as there's not enough vitamins in them. External css files, that is.

/claus

<edit>i'll correct that. Spiders do read external stylesheets, but still, there is some understanding that they will not necessarily punish for that kind of action. Anyway, i think you have a strong case, after all it's not hidden keywords or anything like that.

My original point was only that the more times you repeat the "invisible" tag on a page, the easier it is for an automated process to conclude that you might be doing something unwanted.
</edit>

[waldemar]

From "sticking to the standards" I get the feeling there is a reason why the law was written like that - so I'm not sure if cheating around it is a good idea (having the ethical problem right now with hiding the 'skip-nvaigation' link). Even though spiders do not put a penality on things like that right now, they might in future.

stuijts: Have you heard about the current BIENE award in Germany?

[stuijts]

Even though spiders do not put a penality on things like that right now, they might in future.

That's exactly my concern. I just got to the next chapter of my workshop - and even more stuff turn up which I see as very difficult with regard to SEO...

@waldemar: yes, I know the BIENE. But I doubt I'll be able to join the contest already after this workshop ;-)