Re: visibility of 'skip links'

use appropriate wording.  even if you have to say: "for keyboard
users...."

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Gilder" <w3c@tom.me.uk>
To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>; <w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org>; "Scarlett Julian
(ED)" <Julian.Scarlett@sheffield.gov.uk>
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2002 8:37 AM
Subject: Re: visibility of 'skip links'


On Monday, May 20, 2002, 8:26:33 AM, Scarlett Julian (ED) wrote:
> I therefore wanted to hide it and attached a css class with
> visibility set to hidden. Does doing this present any problems for the
> people that would benefit from a 'skip links' link. I'm pretty sure
that
> screen readers will pick up the hidden link but just wanted to make
sure.

This is an interesting one, and something I've been looking into for the
past
few days, as I've been testing out aural browsers for Windows.

Sadly most of these are just IE combined with MS Agent (or another voice
engine) - which means pages pay attention to visual styles (if a link is
set to
display:none, it won't be read).

On a lot of pages, a "skip to content" link would make no sense on the
screen
where the navigation and content are side-by-side - so you really have
to hide
it.

I've noticed several sites (including the WAI's own) using a small
transparent
gif with the alt text set to "skip navigation" or something similar -
but this
seems to me as just a bit of a HTML hack - similar to using pixel gifs
for
layout.

So I'm really not sure what to do on this one, I feel like an awful lot
of
commercial screen readers are letting web developers who are trying to
create
accessible pages down.

--
Tom Gilder
tom@tom.me.uk

Received on Monday, 20 May 2002 09:10:32 UTC