I have lurked for a little while, and this is my first post to this group. I have met some of you in person or virtually in other contexts, and appreciate your contributions to Drupal accessibility. In learning Drupal 7, myself, I have encountered some problems as a blind developer for which I have not yet found solutions (though I have done much reading of Drupal books and web articles). I hope some of you may have helpful thoughts on the following issues, divided into Blocks and Views; Content Types and Forms; and Status and Error Messages.
Blocks and Views
As you know, core or contributed modules often create blocks of information that need to be assigned to a region of the page in order to become visible to visitors. One problem I am encountering is deciding what regions to use for blocks that are not automatically assigned to a region. Right now, I am just using the default Drupal 7 theme. Can anyone give tips on where to place things? Are there conventions, or usability factors to consider, depending on the nature of the block? Are there guidelines for when a block should only appear on the front page, or be associated only with a particular content type?
Other layout-related questions are as follows? Conceptually, what are the distinct purposes of different menus, e.g., the main menu and navigation menus Since the main menu and other menus can include aspects that seem related to navigation to me, I do not understand what is supposed to be different about the navigation menu, main menu, or other menus. Though I have read mention of them multiple times, I am still trying to conceptually grasp key differences intended among primary menus, secondary menus, site menus, user menus, and navigation menus. I know almost anything can be put anywhere, but what are some good rules of thumb for what to put where in a site with relatively conventional features?
I am also curious if anyone has tips on using the views and panels modules with a screen reader. Are there canned layouts that are easy to implement? If so, where might be a good place to start? So far, I have not found any step-by-step tutorials about setting up basic views with a screen reader, and other explanations naturally tend to be quite visually and mouse oriented.
Content Types and Forms
I noticed that the widget to choose multiple values via a "select list" does not seem to be usable with JAWS 10, whereas a set of checkboxes does work. Are there existing tips on what widgets tend to be more accessible than others for managing particular field types? For example, are any of the date-related widgets generally accessible with screen readers, or am I better off just using a text field with a custom format? I also noticed a widget for choosing tags which guesses as one types. I have not tried it yet, but wonder if others have tested it for accessibility.
After I created a content type, I noticed that JAWS would often read the wrong field label as I tabbed through the form to add a new record of that content type. I have noticed this with both the Bartik and Simpler themes, so wonder if it is a general accessibility problem in Drupal 7. Although I found accessibility evaluations of Drupal 6 themes, I have not found them for Drupal 7. Does anyone happen to have an opinion of Simpler versus Genesis or any other particular Drupal 7 theme with respect to accessibility?
I also have noticed that the help message related to the current field usually appears below it rather than above it. I think above is more intuitive, and wonder if that can be changed.
Status and Error Messages
I have not figured out a general pattern as to where such messages are placed. Often, though not always, I can find a status message (e.g., after pressing a Save button) if I navigate by heading. If there is a consistent way to look for such a message, it would significantly increase efficiency for nonvisual users. Is there a built-in pattern for placing such messages that I am missing?
Thanks for any help.
Jamal