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From: John E Brandt
Date: Mar 16, 2011 3:09PM

Julie and Susan bring up some good points.

Admittedly, I know less about screen magnification than about screen
readers. I have only the O/S built in screen magnification to test with (I
am aware that there are more robust third party screen mag applications).
When I use these magnifiers on the Mac OSX or Windows 7, the "skip
navigation" link did nothing to refocus the screen to where the content
begins (I am using www.webaim.org as the test bed here as it has the Skip
navigation link visible). So, I don't see how the "skip navigation" feature
helps screen magnification users. Can you tell us more Julie? Perhaps there
is a setting on the magnifier that does this?

Regarding folks who are "keyboard only" users, I guess I am more at a loss
as to how the "skip navigation" link helps them. Can you tell us more Julie?

Regarding Susan's comments, I guess if any document is not properly built
and tagged, whether that document be an HTML page, PDF or a MS-Word
document, the user with a disability is at a distinct disadvantage.

My position on the efficacy (and potential future) of the "skip navigation"
standard in Section 508, given the "advances" of current screen reader
technology and the apparent use rate of the "Skip navigation" links as
implied in the WebAIM screen reader survey data, assumes that the other
standards (Section 508 or WCAG) are being applied and used effectively. I
guess one could also assume that if a web designer was trying to meet the
Section 508 standards and knew enough to put a "Skip navigation" link on a
web page they would also have been doing things to meet the other standards
as well. That said, I certainly know of many situations where accessibility
standards were built into the design of a web page template or content
management system and their efforts were thwarted by the folks who added
content knowing nothing about accessibility and thus rendered the web page
inaccessible to people with disabilities. But this is a training issue, not
a design issue.

So with deference to the principles of good universal design, if there are
some reasons to keep the "Skip navigation" standard because it help others -
not just screen reader users - then I am interested in learning about them.

Thank you all for your comments here and on the blog.

~j


John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
<EMAIL REMOVED>
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA