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Re: Visible Skip Nav Link

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From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Feb 16, 2012 10:45AM

Elle,

Mass.Gov used the visible "skip to main" link on our recent design refresh. The business case was that it was useful for touch device users, and that there was no harm in including for any form factor. The longer story is that we analyzed a gazillion sites, came to a consensus on the requirements, and gave them to the designer, along with all of our other requirements. The designer included it into the design, and we received no complaints about it ("clutter" or otherwise) from the other stakeholders.

Hawaii also has a visible one: http://portal.ehawaii.gov/index.html as does https://www.disability.gov/

sb

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/itd


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Elle
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 11:45 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Visible Skip Nav Link

Everyone:

I really appreciate all the feedback. This redesign is an opportunity for accessibility "in a perfect world" best practices to come to life, so I didn't want to overlook a possible win if it really added something for users. As I have many battles yet to face, I think I'll use this as a chance to demonstrate how very reasonable I am.

Jared, I appreciate the code samples for further improving the experience.


Cheers,
Elle




On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 11:38 AM, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> The arguments against a visible "skip" links are that most sighted
> users don't know what they do, they intrude significantly on visual
> design (by their nature, they have to be at the top of the page and
> visually apparent), and they provide very little utility for mouse
> users. There's little that can be done to overcome these arguments.
>
> The arguments against a hidden "skip" link are that sighted
> keyboard-only users may not know that it is there or they might
> quickly 'tab' past it. I think these can readily be overcome. I have a
> very simple demo that uses basic CSS3 transitions to animate the
> "skip" link into view when it receives keyboard focus. See
> http://webaim.org/temp/skipcss3.htm It is very visually apparent,
> difficult to miss even if you are navigating quickly, and could be
> styled to fit right into the visual design.
>
> In short, no, I don't think visible "skip" links are a battle worth
> fighting.
>
> Vincent's example where it pops into view when the mouse moves is very
> distracting and could render navigation of the page impossible for
> users with high distractability.
>
> Jared
>