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Re: Tabindex and skip links...

for

From: gez
Date: Sep 23, 2003 10:08PM

Having read my reply, I've just realised something relatively significant.
Mozilla (and other Gecko based browsers) will respect the tab order if you
navigate to an in-page link using the keyboard. It only seems to break when
using the mouse to click an in-page link, followed by keyboard navigation.
That's not as bad a situation as I first imagined, but I would still be
interested in people's opinion on this behaviour.

Best regards.

Gez
________________________
Supplement your vitamins
http://www.juicystudio.com
Keeping developers informed!

----- Original Message -----
From: "gez" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 4:55 AM
Subject: Re: Tabindex and skip links...


> Hi Stephanie,
>
> I would also be interested in hearing opinions on this problem. I've found
> the behaviour is different, depending on the browser. IE and Lynx behave
how
> you would expect them to behave. They maintain the tab order, from the
point
> of the in-page link. Mozilla and Opera appear to reset the tab index when
> you click on an in-page link. Skip links are just like any other in-page
> link, so clicking on one means the next tab in the sequence will be the
> first in the defined tab order. Unless I'm missing something fundamental,
I
> would say the behaviour of Mozilla and Opera is buggy, and defeats the
> purpose of providing skip links, or any other type of in-page link with a
> view to aiding keyboard navigation.
>
> Strangely, Mozilla (and other Gecko based browsers) will respect the tab
> order if you enter the address directly, including fragment identifier (or
> navigate to the fragment identifier from another page).
>
> Best regards.
>
> Gez
>
> ________________________
> Supplement your vitamins
> http://www.juicystudio.com
> Keeping developers informed!
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Stephanie Sullivan" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> To: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2003 4:03 AM
> Subject: Tabindex and skip links...
>
>
> > Hi all. I have not been on this list long so I apologize if this has
> already
> > been discussed ad infinitum.
> >
> > I have a site that will be going live next week. It is a 'mildly
> accessible'
> > site with inline UL for most navigation, uses CSS with one overall table
> for
> > the three columns (not the header of footer), XHTML Transitional.
> >
> > We have used tabindexes to take the user from each nav button to their
> > respective subnav group in order... Then on to the sign in and search
> forms.
> > All this is working swimmingly.
> >
> > Here's my issue.
> >
> > We also created four visible skip links (we opted not to use
display:none)
> > which are the first four tabindexes for each page. These go to the log
in
> > form, the main content, the list of that day's new content and the
search
> > box. HOWEVER, what I've found is that though the user can tab to the
skip
> > link that takes them to the search box -- once they click on the skip
link
> > and actually jump to the anchor in the search form -- when they hit tab
> > again to get INTO the text field to search, they pop back over to the
next
> > tab index... Not the form field.
> >
> > I've tried several workarounds. Some were likely not too kosher. But I
> can't
> > get anything to work. <sigh />
> >
> > So is this an "either/or" situation? Can I not have a tabindex AND skip
> > links? Does anyone have an idea for a solution?
> >
> > TIA,
> >
> > Stephanie Sullivan
> >
> > Contributing Author .: "Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 Magic" :. New
> Riders
> > CommunityMX Team Member :: http://www.communitymx.com
> > Technical Editor .: "DreamweaverMX Killer Tips" :. New Riders
> > VioletSky Design :: http://www.violetsky.net
> >
> > You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call
> > failure is not the falling down, but the staying down. - Mary Pickford
> >
> >
> >
> > ----
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> > visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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>
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