Topic: your thoughts on "skip to content"? (Page 1 of 1)

I wanted to solicit you good people's opinions on the use of "skip to content" links, the ones that jump you down the page to get at the content right? I can't really get my mind around what they're for except to screw up a layout really I mean I know what they're for, I mean they're really handy, I mean they suck. Hold on, I'm confused, perhaps some more rapid off the cuff questions and you can say what you will about any bit of it ...

1. What are they for?

2. Do you like/use/wish every site had them?

3. If I use it as the first item on the page, and I hide it from the screen using display:none does a screen reader get this? or should I hide it using a negative margin or somesuch to get it out of site but still around for readers?

4. If I hide it, how can people browsing through the screen media use it if it's not visible

1. Well you know they are here for accessibility reason.
2. yes/yes in lynx/yes
3. yes, since screen readers do not interpret the CSS.
4. they can because the browsers for disabled/blind persons ignores the screen media CSS and/or force a high contrast/text-size stylesheet.

so you're basically saying that it's a good mechanism to include only for the 'disabled' and their UAs (poi-using-lynx being 'disabled' ) but fine to hide it from a "normal" user who's surfing using a graphical browser?

That's kind of my thoughts on it's purpose and very much the way I'd like to move forward in using it, I've just not really studied the useage one bit and wondered if there was a consensus, barring that I know I can at least get an Asylum consensus.

thanks poi

anyone else please feel free to pontificate

They're stupid.

Errr...I use FF - and I either allow graphical content, or have it stripped out, accordingly.

I never noticed a "skip to content" link - why would one need one

WebShaman: "skip to content" links are useful for those using a screen reader or aural browser ( which literally reads the texts and alt attributes of a web page ). "skip to content" link provides a mean to skip the navigation blah blah they certainly already heard and won't bare to hear one more time before finally reaching the real content of the page.

Since the "normal" people have CSS, images and what not, the web developers/designer can hide the navigation helpers placed for disabled person.

JKMabry: Whenever I want/have to check the accessibility of a web site, I try to turn off JS, images, CSS and utlimately browse the site with Lynx ( every thing off, except the content and the alt attributes ). If the navigation remains fluid and the content is not altered, there's all the chances that a disabled or visually impaired person will be able to browse and enjoy the site too.

If you want to learn more about accessibility and usability, check Accessify.com and the The Web Accessibility Tools Consortium [WAT-C]. I just found ( on a French site and on an English one ) some videos of blind people using a computer and surfing the web.



(Edited by poi on 09-15-2005 23:01)

quote:

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They're stupid.

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I kinda sorta agree, but I'm not blind. I think that waiting for a screen reader to read everything that comes before the content (possibly a header, navigation, extraneous promo areas, etc) would suck fiercely wouldn't it? In that case "skip to content" being the first thing on the page would kick ass wouldn't it?

So if you think they're stupid still, how would you accomplish same? Could this same thing be done with link rel or some other method instead?

Ahhh...thanks for the pointers Po1.

Do we have any Asylumites that rely on a screen reader or aural browser? If so, time to herd them in here and find out what they think...

The last person I met that was blind and using a screen reader (JAWS) was talking on a busy IRC channel and coding PHP. They're not _that_ disabled (and as crappy as screenreaders seem to be, they're apparently not that bad).