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From: Patrick Lauke
Date: Thu, Oct 12 2006 5:10AM
Subject: Re: looking forhtml techniqueto provide a methodto skiprepetitive navigation linksi
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> Penny Roberts

> Like I said before my argument is about usability rather than
> accessibilty. I don't think that we have the right to
> dictate (to such
> an extent) *how* people use the web. Why should users be
> forced to use
> a keyboard or browser shortcut?

Why should a web page (aimed at delivering *content*) replicate
functionality that is best handled from the browser's point of view?
Skip links may be an edge case, as some browsers still don't offer
good built-in functionality), but this same rationale applies to
things like "increase/decrease text size" "print this page",
"bookmark this page", "add to favourites", javascript based "back" buttons,
and all similar "helpers/widgets". From a usability point of view you
might say "oh, we're just making it more usable for users who don't know
about their tools' functionality", but I'd argue that this is a
shortsighted solution as it does not address the fundamental problem.
In fact, the more sites implement those widgets, the less likely users
will be to learn the functionality that their browsers actually offer,
and the more at a loss they will be once they move from one site to another
which doesn't offer those widgets.

> In some cases it isn't a question of
> education, it is a matter of personal preference: some
> people's brains
> work one way; others another. Thus some people use ctrl-c to
> copy, some
> use edit>copy and some right-click and copy.

But, getting back to the point, this would be: it is my personal preference
to use a browser that offers me only limited navigation aids...so I expect
the web *content* developer to accommodate for my preference by replicating
the missing functionality in their pages?

> (Can I get down of my soap box now?)

Sorry, not yet...

P
________________________________
Patrick H. Lauke
Web Editor / University of Salford
http://www.salford.ac.uk
________________________________
Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force
http://webstandards.org/
________________________________