Re: Using Heading to Replace Skip Links

On Wed, 09 May 2012 10:48:58 +0200, Kazuhito Kidachi <kazuhito@gmail.com>  
wrote:

> Hello Charles,
>
> On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 4:33 PM, Charles McCathieNevile  
> <chaals@opera.com> wrote:
>> Although it might be worth knowing that skip links were introduced as a  
>> hack
>> authors made because screen readers *didn't* permit header-by-header
>> navigation when WCAG1 was being developed and deployed.
>
> Maybe this is off-topic, but I'm curious why Opera supports navigation
> by headings, while other visual browsers don't support it.

I don't know why they don't either. Opera has always had a far more  
powerful keyboard navigation than other browsers - more like what people  
expect from screen readers, including spatial navigation (for sighted  
keyboard users) and specific navigation for headers, links, and forms.

>> It's not hard to make the script for other browsers, I suspect. I'll  
>> see if I can get Daniel Glazman's script that provides a complete
>> navigation frame, which would be even better.
>
> Do you think visual browsers with the script can be called as
> "Accessibility Supported"?

Sure...

> If the answer is yes and if you provide the script which can be
> available across visual browsers, skip links seems to be unnecessary
> for complying with SC 2.4.1,

Hmm. This is where you get into the specifics of Vivienne's question. If  
your users have the relevant capability installed (e.g. because you offer  
an extension they can use) then this is true. To be honest, I think you  
would have to say that you only pass under this condition when the user  
has a cpable browser, and point out that they need Opera or relevant  
extensions installed...

> only to say about pages with "good" headings.

Indeed. (Which makes it foolish to claim conformance this way except  
through intelligent human checking...)

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles 'chaals' McCathieNevile  Opera Software, Standards Group
     je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg kan noen norsk
http://my.opera.com/chaals       Try Opera: http://www.opera.com

Received on Wednesday, 9 May 2012 09:16:00 UTC