RE: Skip to content link

Skip links aren't intended for screen reader users, though that may have
been how they started in the very early days of the web. They are for
sighted keyboard-only users, who have to navigate using only the tab key.
Those users do not have any of the options offered by a screen reader. The
"Skip to main content" link is specifically so that keyboard users do not
have to tab all the way through the header (often 50 or  60 links and
buttons on larger sites), otherwise those users have to tab through every
link, on every page they go to. Which is also why all skip links must be
visible when a user tabs onto them - they fail SC2.4.1 if they are not
visible.