WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Skip navigation and the back button

for

From: Mark Magennis
Date: Dec 3, 2003 7:10AM

I noticed in a user test recently that a user with a screenreader would go
from one page to another, click the skip navigation link, then click the
browser Back button and be surprised not to go back to the first page.

This is correct browser behaviour, because like any other hyperlink that you
click, the skip navigation link is put into the history list so that Back
goes back to it. A second Back click then takes you to the previous page.
However, it was a problem for that user, because she thought there was
something wrong with the website that meant she had to click Back twice to
get back to the previous page.

I was surprised that I have not noticed this being a problem before. Neither
have I noticed any discussion of this as a problem on any accessibility
list.

I guess there is nothing that can be done about this, short of some hack
that stops same page links being entered into the history list, and that
would break the normal Back button functionality which would be even worse.
My feeling at the moment is that it is one of those things that must be left
up to the user to learn - that Back will return to the position of the
previous clicked link, not necessarily the previously visited page. Does
anyone have any other views on this?

Mark


Dr. Mark Magennis - EU Projects

National Council for the Blind of Ireland
Whitworth Road, Dublin 9, Republic of Ireland

<EMAIL REMOVED> tel: +353 (0)71 914 7464



----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, suspend, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/