Re: Why Skip Navigation Links are a Hack

On Fri, Jun 13, 2003 at 04:16:02 -0700, Kynn Bartlett wrote:

> Skip Navigation links are there to compensate for a deficiency in
> HTML.
> 
> Namely, there's no good way to designate "sections" of a page which
> can't be navigated through easily.  The browser can't figure out
> which is which, and so needs help from the author.

Skip Navigation links allow users to skip past repetitive content that
they don't want read/listen to/feel/etc again.

There is no deficiency in HTML, we have the <h?> series of elements to
mark up the beginning of sections, all the user has to do to skip past
the navigation is to skip to the next heading - but most browsers
don't implement features that make that possible, hence the use of an
element that browsers do implement.

On Fri, Jun 13, 2003 at 04:31:20 -0700, Kynn Bartlett wrote:

> Oh, PS: Skip Navigation links are entirely presentational markup for

A skip link is not presentational markup, it defines a relationship
between some inline content and another part of the
document. (Admittedly 'Skip to main content' would be more meaningful
as the link text then 'Skip navigation').

> one specific media type

One specific media type? I have personally used skip links when
navigation a page on a set of speakers, on a handheld device, on a
projection and on a normal screen. That's FOUR media types!



-- 
David Dorward                                     http://david.us-lot.org/
         Redesign in progress: http://stone.thecoreworlds.net/
  Microsoft announces IE is dead (so upgrade):
http://minutillo.com/steve/weblog/2003/5/30/microsoft-announces-ie-is-dead

Received on Saturday, 14 June 2003 19:24:14 UTC