Thread Subject: Re: Group D: 22(o) Skip navigation

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From: Jared Smith
Date: Thu, Nov 30 2006 8:15 AM

On 11/30/06, Fratkin, Mike < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Additionally, there should be a requirement that the link or mechanism
> be visible to other users with disabilities (keyboard users not using
> screen readers) so that they can take advantage of bypassing repeated
> content as well. This can remain visible or become visible when tabbed
> to.

I think I must disagree here, especially if we were to specify that
ALL repeated elements must provide this mechanisms. And must we
provide a mechanism to skip forward and backward? If this is the case,
then this will introduce MANY links on each typical web page - at the
beginning and end of navigation, sub-navigation, header, footer, and
other common page elements. Consider the cognitive load of so many
links (a good share of users are confused by "skip to content" alone),
let alone the web developer backlash.

We've barely begun to see limited success in developers implementing
"skip navigation" links. This is because it is one of the few
requirements that has an impact upon visual design. While we're now at
a point where the burden for such functionality can and is being
shifted away from content developers to user agents, I would encourage
that we pursue guidelines that would support such methods. With a tiny
bit of user agent support, this could be mostly solved by us simply
encouraging semantically structured page content (at a minimum
providing proper headers).

Jared Smith
NCDAE.org

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