WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Re[2]: Re[2]: Dayton Art Alternative Descriptions

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Nov 10, 2004 4:06PM

jkorpela wrote:

> The need for "skip nav" links is created by putting navigation first.
> The very observation that such links are need in such cases indicates that
> people realize that users need content first.

No it doesn't. It aknowledges the fact that some users want content
first, and others want access to the navigation. It tries to make a
reasonable compromise that serves both. The same can be said about the
"skip to navigation" | content | navigation order. Two sides of the same
coin, two solutions to the same problem inherent in HTML documents: that
navigation and content are not separated properly in the markup, but
share the same space. In an ideal world, these would be completely
separate blocks in the document, and user agents would expose both to
the user and offer an easy way to switch focus between them.

> And although the need to
> follow a "skip nav" link first when entering a page is less absurd than
> the need to listen to a few dozens of navigational links at the start of
> every page, it's still an inconvenience.

Whereas the need to jump to the end of the document and then backtrack
(potentially experiencing the navigation in reverse) is not an
inconvenience?

Patrick H. Lauke
_____________________________________________________
re