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RE: Skip Navigation

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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Jul 23, 2002 5:06AM

Jukka,

You are right of course concerning the image element example I used.
However, it was simply in reply to a comment that the "skip nav" (I really
don't know what to call it - block, method, or ideal perhaps?) only worked
in Internet Explorer. To which I replied that no, using a standard named
anchor (perhaps visually hidden) worked in virtually all browsers, and had
since almost the beginning of HTML time (the GIF89 format, which supported
transparency, was released in, well, 1989). It was a sloppy response banged
out quickly...

While I agree with your assessment that a skip nav block aids all users, my
own experience suggests that it is present primarily for screen reading
technology; for those users who cannot visually "scan" a page quickly and
decide what information they really want. In the commercial world then,
where not all clients are as sensitive to the issues as the other members of
this list are, getting the compromise of a transparent pixel spacer with a
named anchor is a good first step - I would suggest that it is better than
nothing at all, mandated or not. It is both easily implemented and visually
unobtrusive.

I would perhaps disagree with you concerning the structural placement of the
navigation links at the "bottom" of the document and position it at the top
via CSS.

Doesn't it seem reasonable that upon arriving at *any* document the user
would first want to know where they are (via an appropriate <title>) and
where they can go? Any time I go somewhere new I always look for the map
first<grin>. Therefore wouldn't placing the standard navigational "block"
(div) at the bottom of the document force users of screen reading technology
to read the entire document *before* they get to the navigation? And for
those with cognitive disabilities, wouldn't they too benefit with clear
navigational instructions from the onset (both visually and structurally),
consistently placed on every document within any given site?

Just some thoughts...

JF

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