Buttons should not be hidden in certain states; need another pattern to offer better accessibility

[megoth]

The pattern of hiding/showing buttons according to state is problematic in terms of accessibility. It might also not offer the best UX for users. I think toggling availability by changing color and using other cues are a better approach (and mark it semantically, using the disabled-attribute).

Some examples of this pattern:

• When offering controls for a resource: Is hidden until you hover with a mouse
• Save-button for sourcePane: I hidden until there are changes to be saved

[timbl]

Good point. Though I think that hiding the optional pane icons at each level made a huge improvement in legibility. With them in, it looks very geeky and off putting to a normal user, and quite distracting even to a power user. Maybe some without hide them behind a "..." 'more stuff' logo.

Agree about disabled start buttons. Something like making them 80% transparent would be better.
The disabled flag on the control may not be what we need either ...