Had to compile to accessbility standards recently, but I'm no expert, but there's two things I picked up; skip to navigation and use of h1

I believe these code segments are from zen 1.1 (or whatever zen I'm using atm). 

    <?php if ($primary_links || $secondary_links || $navbar):

endif;
?>
From what I understand, skip to navigation link is import information for screen readers so the user can skip things like header, etc. and go right into the navigation. It can not be display:none due to most screen readers skipping those, but I believe the element-invisible class that will be in d7 would work to keep it from being shown to regular users. (http://drupal.org/node/546862 zen issue queue over the class which is in zen 2.x ). 

          <?php if ($site_name):

if ($title):

else:

print $front_page; " title=" print t('Home'); " rel="home">
print $site_name;

endif;
endif;
?>

One h1 (vs current possible 2) is better understandable for screen readers and web crawlers/search engines, I believe.

I can make a patch for it later, if desired.

Comments

hefox’s picture

hefox commented

...oh.
Instead of trying to fix that mess, I'll just say look at page.tpl.php under zen. u.u

jpshayes’s picture

jpshayes commented

About the css 

#skipnav {
display:none;
}

will not be read by screen readers. but,

#skipnav {
position:absolute;
left:9999px;
}

Will be read by screen readers.

hefox’s picture

hefox commented

I think the element-invisible has been added to zen 2.x (#546862: Add D7's element-hidden and element-invisible for accessibility features) so I would use that if this is upgraded to use zen 2.x (not sure if it is or isn't).

onejam’s picture

onejam commented

Not had time to look at Zen 2.x but will soon.

Thanks