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Re: Tabindex and skip links...

for

From: gez
Date: Sep 23, 2003 9:57PM

Hi Stephanie,

I would also be interested in hearing opinions on this problem. I've found
the behaviour is different, depending on the browser. IE and Lynx behave how
you would expect them to behave. They maintain the tab order, from the point
of the in-page link. Mozilla and Opera appear to reset the tab index when
you click on an in-page link. Skip links are just like any other in-page
link, so clicking on one means the next tab in the sequence will be the
first in the defined tab order. Unless I'm missing something fundamental, I
would say the behaviour of Mozilla and Opera is buggy, and defeats the
purpose of providing skip links, or any other type of in-page link with a
view to aiding keyboard navigation.

Strangely, Mozilla (and other Gecko based browsers) will respect the tab
order if you enter the address directly, including fragment identifier (or
navigate to the fragment identifier from another page).

Best regards.

Gez

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephanie Sullivan" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 4:03 AM
Subject: Tabindex and skip links...


> Hi all. I have not been on this list long so I apologize if this has
already
> been discussed ad infinitum.
>
> I have a site that will be going live next week. It is a 'mildly
accessible'
> site with inline UL for most navigation, uses CSS with one overall table
for
> the three columns (not the header of footer), XHTML Transitional.
>
> We have used tabindexes to take the user from each nav button to their
> respective subnav group in order... Then on to the sign in and search
forms.
> All this is working swimmingly.
>
> Here's my issue.
>
> We also created four visible skip links (we opted not to use display:none)
> which are the first four tabindexes for each page. These go to the log in
> form, the main content, the list of that day's new content and the search
> box. HOWEVER, what I've found is that though the user can tab to the skip
> link that takes them to the search box -- once they click on the skip link
> and actually jump to the anchor in the search form -- when they hit tab
> again to get INTO the text field to search, they pop back over to the next
> tab index... Not the form field.
>
> I've tried several workarounds. Some were likely not too kosher. But I
can't
> get anything to work. <sigh />
>
> So is this an "either/or" situation? Can I not have a tabindex AND skip
> links? Does anyone have an idea for a solution?
>
> TIA,
>
> Stephanie Sullivan
>
> Contributing Author .: "Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic" :. New
Riders
> CommunityMX Team Member :: http://www.communitymx.com
> Technical Editor .: "DreamweaverMX Killer Tips" :. New Riders
> VioletSky Design :: http://www.violetsky.net
>
> You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call
> failure is not the falling down, but the staying down. - Mary Pickford
>
>
>
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