Leaving all the philosophical standpoints behind, I still feel the urge to make this suggestion.
A simple way to reduce the design impact of a skip-nav link would be to make it the same color as the background on which it resides. You won't win any Bobby awards by doing it, of course, but sometimes a little trickery goes a long way. </bd> On 12/21/06, Christopher M Kelly <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Just FYI, the approach on www.seoworkers.com seems to work correctly in IE6. In my work here, I advocate skip links being visible and staying visible for all users. The "suddenly appearing" method, to me, is better than not visible at all. As noted in a previous post, there are a number of users who are sighted, but prefer to not use or cannot use a mouse for navigation. I myself prefer to TAB through forms, etc. (Full disclosure: I do have Cerebral Palsy, but it hardly affects my computer use. I do completely stink at video games, though.) I get really annoyed if TAB order does not match visual layout. And, I know some very learned and wise folks advocate putting content first, nav second, but I do not agree. Just my opinion, of course. My feeling is on Web pages most users, sighted or not, are used to hitting nav first, meat second. Reversing it confuses the TAB order for sighted users and may make screen reader users think they messed something up in their navigation. A combination of well placed and visible skip links, semantic page organization with heading elements and other proper elements, and possibly access keys (I'm not totally sold on them) provides multiple effective methods for users of many abilities to navigate a site efficiently. So, in my humble and sole opinion, leave the skip link where it is at top, but don't have it pop in and out when keyboard focus hits and leaves it. I know there are "design" concerns and I sympathize. But, can't we have both good visual appeal and maximum accessibility? Just my 2 cents adjusted for inflation. Christopher M. Kelly, Sr. (GM22) State Farm Insurance Companies Accessible Technology Services & Support (ATSS) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "[Web] Access is not about adding wheelchair ramps to existing pages. It's about getting your page right in the first place. This medium was designed to be accessible. If your work isn't accessible, you're doing it wrong..." - Owen Briggs, Web and CSS guru, http://www.thenoodleincident.com <http://www.thenoodleincident.com/> "However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope." - Stephen Hawking ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *******************************************************************
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