skip to ... content

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed jake <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk>
writing in news:45$oiRF8Xy7CFwvC (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk:

Exactly. But the blind visitor using a screen reader doesn't have to
skip *anywhere* - s/he's already at the content.

Nope. What about the headings, search boxes, contact numbers, etc.?

More importantly .... how do they then get to the navigation?

An interesting dilema...

<a href="#menu" class="skipnav">Go to Menu</a>

actually,

For Each Header In Document
<a href="#menu" class="skipnav">Go to Menu</a>
<a href="#content" class="skipnav">Go to Content</a>
Next

--
Adrienne Boswell
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
Please respond to the group so others can share

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005 08:51:24 +0100, jake <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk>
wrote:

In message <irjte1pg6d4sb9h41ri7lmr5cuml0r0r5p (AT) 4ax (DOT) com>, Lemming
thiswillbounce (AT) bumblbee (DOT) demon.co.uk> writes
On Fri, 29 Jul 2005 11:22:28 +0100, jake <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk
wrote:

In message <rv8ge1h9j0h8v24l5uq6l3nhg8e8165t2u (AT) 4ax (DOT) com>, Lemming
thiswillbounce (AT) bumblbee (DOT) demon.co.uk> writes
On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 15:50:46 +0100, jake <jake (AT) gododdin (DOT) demon.co.uk
wrote:

In message <supgc1dmjgppahtalg51ot450cbagd0id7 (AT) 4ax (DOT) com>, Lemming
thiswillbounce (AT) bumblbee (DOT) demon.co.uk> writes
On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 20:48:25 +0100, "William Tasso"
SpamBlocked (AT) tbdata (DOT) com> wrote:

Greetings One and All

been pondering skip-to .....

Which is preferable .......

a class="noviz" href="#content">skip to content</a

or

a class="noviz" href="#content"><img src="my-very-small-image.jpg"
alt="skip to content"></a

or

something else

or

none of the above (because they're not necessary).

Surely this has to be a troll ...

Nope. WT is a long-time poster in many HTML-associated NGs

Ok, I'd not encountered WT before (was reading in
alt.html.web-accessibility).

Likewise.

Using an image?

Transparent or single-pixel gif images -- a fairly common way to provide
an invisible link.

Why would you want to make a link invisible? Perhaps I'm missing the
point here.

Some designers don't like a 'skip to [whatever]' link to be visible on
the page (although some designers do so -- makes it easier for keyboard
users) as they feel it spoils their design.


And "Skip to *content* ?"

Surely, skip to *menu*.

Depends on the sequence of the code. If navigation comes first (normal)
then 'skip to main content' is used as the first entry on a page.

Navigation coming first *may* be "normal", but it shouldn't be. most
people visit a page for the content. If you place your navigation
*after* the content then your visitors get what they want faster.
Then you can use CSS to make the nav display wherever you want for the
GUI client, keeping him happy, while also making life MUCH easier for
the blind user using a screen reader.

I think PDA and mobile/cell-phone users would probably disagree with
you.

Two things to consider:
(a) The first part of the page often contains headings, contact details,
and other things. You need to be able to bypass all of this -- not just
navigation.
(b) If you move the navigation to the back end of the code, then you
need to provide a 'skip to navigation' link ;-)

Exactly. But the blind visitor using a screen reader doesn't have to
skip *anywhere* - s/he's already at the content.

Nope. What about the headings, search boxes, contact numbers, etc.?

More importantly .... how do they then get to the navigation?
[snip]

Ok, I've lost patience. My first post in this thread (quoted above)
was "Surely, skip to *menu*".

You work it out.

Lemming
--
Curiosity *may* have killed Schrodinger's cat.

The problem with using an invisible link to the main content, for
accessibility purposes, is that you are assuming that the only disability
that would need this is blindness. And if the user is blind, then an
invisible link is the solution.

But there are other disabilities. Think of the user with motor skill
disabilities. Someone that is using a mouth stick for example. Or someone
with tremors, or arthritis. These users are not accessing the website with a
screen reader, because they can see, but they are probably using the
keyboard instead of a mouse, and they have to tab through all navigational
links to get to the content. For them, the skip to main content link would
also be beneficial. But if that link is hidden, they won't see it.

One solution is to make it the first link on the page, and make it only
visible on focus (a:focus), so it won't ever be visible to the typical user,
but it will be visible to a keyboard user when they tab to it, and to a
screen reader.

Check out an example of this at: http://www.webaim.org/. Upon entering the
page, press your tab key and note the "skip to main content" link that
appears at the top of the page. Pressing Enter at this point will skip you
to the main content.

Marge



"William Tasso" <SpamBlocked (AT) tbdata (DOT) com> wrote

Greetings One and All

been pondering skip-to .....

Which is preferable .......

a class="noviz" href="#content">skip to content</a

or

a class="noviz" href="#content"><img src="my-very-small-image.jpg"
alt="skip to content"></a

or

something else

or

none of the above (because they're not necessary).

--
William Tasso

Marge wrote:

The problem with using an invisible link to the main content, for
accessibility purposes, is that you are assuming that the only disability
that would need this is blindness. And if the user is blind, then an
invisible link is the solution.

[...]

One solution is to make it the first link on the page, and make it only
visible on focus (a:focus), so it won't ever be visible to the typical user,
but it will be visible to a keyboard user when they tab to it, and to a
screen reader.

WOW!!! I *love* it! Thanks for this tip.

Marge wrote:

Please don't top post.
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html

One solution is to make it the first link on the page, and make it only
visible on focus (a:focus), so it won't ever be visible to the typical
user, but it will be visible to a keyboard user when they tab to it,

Thus surprising them with an unexpected link when they do tab, and giving
them no clue that they might not want to use a generic (if perhaps less
effective solution) built into the browser.

and to a screen reader.

No. Screen readers read what is on the screen.

The example you gave positioned it off screen, which is somewhat different.

--
David Dorward <http://blog.dorward.me.uk/> <http://dorward.me.uk/>
Home is where the ~/.bashrc is

Writing in news:alt.www.webmaster,alt.html.web-accessibility
From the safety of the cafeteria
Marge <marger50 (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> said:

...
One solution is to make it the first link on the page, and make it only
visible on focus (a:focus), so it won't ever be visible to the typical
user,
but it will be visible to a keyboard user when they tab to it, and to a
screen reader.

interesting

Check out an example of this at: http://www.webaim.org/.

Surely would be better to place this after the page 'heading' along with
all other navigation and anything else that should be 'skipped'?

Upon entering the
page, press your tab key and note the "skip to main content" link that
appears at the top of the page. Pressing Enter at this point will skip
you
to the main content.

yes - appears to work as described in IE and F/F. Opera gets stuck in a
permanent loop tabbing between the seach box and the 'go' button.

--
William Tasso

** Business as usual