[Accessibility_sig] Pull Quotes

[Moore, Michael]

Friday Brain Teaser:

Some recent discussions about redundant text and what to do about it got
me thinking of pull quotes.  You know those things that magazine editors
and marketing folks love to use to highlight a few lines of an article
and spark your interest.

When I wear my web standards advocate hat the method of marking up these
elements seems obvious.  Enclose them in a block quote then style them
nicely to stand out where the paragraph that they have been pulled from
wraps nicely around them.

However putting my accessibility hat back on, I see some major issues
with leaving the pull quote within the document flow.
1. When the screen reader reads the pull quote it is likely to detract
from understanding the content. This is true whether the content is read
immediately prior to, or after the paragraph from which it was pulled.
2. When style sheets are turned off the pull quote will be included
within, or immediately before or after the paragraph causing a similar
issue.
3. Because Aural style sheets are well supported, if at all using
speak:none or volume:silent does not resolve the issue.

I am considering advocating for the use of the css content property to
render pull quotes.  On the surface, the advantages to this approach
are:
1. Screen readers ignore the content property.
2. If style sheets are disabled the pull quotes are just gone.

This solution is certainly far from ideal, especially considering the
challenges of cross browser support for the content property.

What do you folks think?  If you like the content property solution how
would you implement it?

Mike Moore
Accessibility Specialist
Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services (DARS)
(512) 424-4159