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Re: Bypass Blocks for Keyboard users

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From: Steve Sawczyn
Date: Jul 15, 2015 12:28PM

I realize this is very controversial, but I still lean toward calling a 2.4.1 violation if a skip link isn't present. My reasoning is that while the techniques don't specifically address keyboard users, I feel it's not in the spirit of WCAG to call for a mechanism that can't be used by the user base most highly impacted. Sure browsers could and should add keyboard support for landmark/heading navigation, but until that's a reality, we have real users with real barriers with no real solution other than to say that the "mechanism" actually should be considered to be functionality and hence available to keyboard users.

Steve


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Joseph Sherman
Sent: Wednesday, July 15, 2015 9:00 AM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Bypass Blocks for Keyboard users

Let me ask another way. A webpage has a left navigation menu of 20 items, or top navigation of 5 items. A keyboard-only user has to tab through these on every page within the site, but the main content has a landmark or h1 tag. Technically this seems to meet 2.4.1, but would seem to violate the spirit of the guideline until browsers can use landmarks. Do I give the site a pass for 2.4.1, but note the usability issue? If the developer is required to meet WCAG 2.0 and this is a pass, is there another guideline I can use to get them to add a skip link?

Thanks.

Joseph

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2015 4:57 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Bypass Blocks for Keyboard users

The idea behind landmarks was (and is) the hope that browser vendors will take advantage of them, and implement shortcut mechanisms for keyboard only users.
As for 2.4.1 as it related to keyboard only users, I usually look more at accessible mega menus, accordions, tabs/tabpnels and other complex widgets that reduce the amount of key presses necessary to get to the desired content on a web page.

E.g. if your site boasts a navigation megamenu that consists of 4 or 5 main menu links, each with 8 to 10 item submenus, it is important to enable keyboard navigation pattern that enables the user to utilize the arrow keys to quickly navigate within the menu rather than only implementing shortcuts for mouse users but leave the keyboard only user to fend for him or herself, armed with nothing but the tabkey.



On 7/14/15, Joseph Sherman < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> The second group of Sufficient Techniques for 2.4.1 - Bypass Blocks
> involves grouping blocks of repeated material with ARIA, headings,
> frames, etc. None of these techniques seem to help
> keyboard-only/magnification users, who still may have to move through
> a bunch of navigation links. Am I missing something here?
>
> Joseph
>
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >


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