Web Access Centre

Text browsers

Summary: Text based browsers are used by people with poor eyesight.

• How it works
• Accessibility essentials
• Understanding accessibility links

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Browsing technologies:

• Speech and braille output
• Screen magnification
• Text-based browsers

Text-based browsers are just that. They simply display the contents of the page as text. They do not support images, JavaScript, Java, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), plug-ins or dynamic HTML. As such they are extremely fast when browsing the web. They are also excellent tools when testing your site for accessibility.

Lynx is the most popular text-based browser. It works on Unix, DOS and Windows via DOS emulation. It is available as a free download, or alternatively, you can visit the Lynx site for an online version that allows you to upload your page and see what it looks like in Lynx.

How it works

As with screen readers and refreshable braille displays, text-based browsers render content in a linear fashion. Pages are navigated using a variety of keyboard commands and cannot be interacted with using a mouse. Below is an image of the RNIB home page when viewed in Lynx.

The alternative text for images is seen in place of the images, lines represent text input boxes, square brackets [ ] indicate checkboxes and links are shown in a different colour.

Accessibility essentials

The accessibility of information and making sense of it in a text-based browser is very similar to that of screen readers and refreshable braille displays. Correct and intuitive alternative text must be provided, frames given names and titles, and a logical order of content when read in a linear way.

In the above example “divider”, “arrow” and “pixel” are all images used for spacing, layout or decoration. As they have not been given alternative descriptive text, they convey no meaning and can be confusing to read. In this instance, and should have null value alternative text (alt=” “), so that they are ignored by Lynx.

Understanding accessibility links

• Types of disability
• Accessibility myths
• How people with disabilities access the web
• Web access centre home

For Web Access Centre updates email webaccess@rnib.org.uk

Content author: webaccess@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 06/03/2008 15:41