Skip Navigation was RE: Access key questions

Hi Jim, Susan, and the list:

   May I build on Jim's suggestion of a visible skip navigation and
suggest that the page have several visable skips where there is content
that can be skipped to get to other content or areas of the page.  It
doesnt have to be labelled skip navigation (the top like Jim said
should be something close to that) but the rest could be, and probably
should be more clear to where it is going or what is being skipped. For
example "Back to top" after an article or "Next set of sale items" if
they are grouped in sets.  The reason I ask this is because Skip
Navigation has started to take hold, but we generally thought of as
skipping past a long set of links for those using screen readers.  But
skipping around a page is also great for sighted users having to use a
keyboard for navigation.  I like to think about using a single switch
(big red button for example) to move around the screen and getting to
different parts of the site.  If I can do that "relatively" easily with
a switch as input, then I have designed a good page navigation system
that would also include screen readers.

-Steve

Jim Thatcher said:
> Hi Susan,
>
>
>
> I hope you read my Web Course on scripts
> (http://jimthatcher.com/webcoursea.htm#Webcourse10.D) and followed the
> recommendation for DHMTL menus - BECAUSE you have done it exactly as I
> recommend. Terrific! The idea of making the submenu links available on
> the page that the main menu link opens - is the only practical way of
> making these menu systems accessible . in my opinion. I will try to
> remember to use CSU.org as an example in the future instead of NSF.gov.
>
>
>
> On the accesskey question, as Mathew has already pointed out, display:
> hidden doesn't work. In fact it doesn't work for screen readers either.
>
>
>
> I strongly recommend using a visible skip link - on the far right, top.
> You could make it the same color as the background of your menu items -
> or lighter (I'm not a designer). If the designers (you?) aren't able to
> deal with that, then use an invisible gif (sigh!) to the right of the
> logo. Lots of room! I don't have a visible skip link on my site
> (http://jimthatcher.com <http://jimthatcher.com/> ) but I I will in the
> next version.
>
>
>
> Beautiful site! Congratulations.
>
>
>
> Jim
>
> Accessibility, What Not to do: http://jimthatcher.com/whatnot.htm.
>
> Web Accessibility Tutorial: http://jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org] On
> Behalf Of SLovejoy@csu.org
> Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 11:33 AM
> To: WAI-IG
> Subject: Access key questions
>
>
>
>
> If it is not good practice to post these type of questions, then my
> apologies...
>
> 1.	I have set access key 2 for our skip nav link, but it does not
> appear to be working on http://www.csu.org.  Anyone know why?
>
> 2.	Since access keys don't function in all browsers, should we list
> which browsers they work on  from our accessible page
> http://www.csu.org/extrx/disclaimer/wai.html?
>
>
> We are novices to the WAI, so any other suggestions are more than
> welcome.
>
> Thank you much,
>
> Susan Lovejoy
> Colorado Springs Utilities
> 719-668-8384

Received on Saturday, 27 March 2004 23:23:23 UTC