'skip to content' versus 'skip to content of this page'? Hmm, I'm not so sure, sounds pretty obvious to me. Skip links should be as short as possible, because they get consistently read when a user visits a page with screen reading software. I believe as more sites take this approach on board, it will become more prevalent to these users of what the links do.
Tim Hill Computer Associates Graphic Artist tel: +612 9937 0792 fax: +612 9937 0546 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Kear Sent: Thursday, 25 November 2004 10:18 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [WSG] Sometimes you just cant help people ... I was talking to a blind friend over the weekend, and since he uses Jaws screen reading software, the subject of web sites came up. I was observing as how we in the profession were trying to make things easier for people using other devices than a browser to use the web. "For example, one of the things we're increasingly doing these days is having a 'skip to content' link at the top of the page. In many cases it's only visible to screen readers." Then he floored me. He said "oh yes! I've seen those." (interesting turn of phrase from a guy who's been blind since birth) "but what are they for? I've never used them because I don't know what they do." The point is, he didn't know what the skip-to-content link was for and therefore he wouldn't use it, lest he find himself a long way away from where he wanted to go (the content) and then have trouble getting back again. Perhaps we need to be a bit more expansive in the link itself. Perhaps instead of "skip to content' we need to have the link say "skip to the content of this page" or some such. A blind reader will hear Jaws say "VISITED LINK.: SKIP TO CONTENT" and thinking about it, it isn't totally obvious what that does. Cheers Mike Kear AFP Webworks Windsor, NSW, Australia http://afpwebworks.com .com, .net, .org etc domains start at A$20/year ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
