Unlike many others, our recommended method of implementing skip links ensures that all keyboard users ’see’ the skip link, as it appears visually on screen when a user tabs to it, and is of course read out by screen readers. The problem is this — although they find it, many web users simply do not understand what a skip link does, let alone how to use one.
I've used skip links on all my sites for quite some time, but a while back I made a change. The change was in using longer link text. Taking a page from Accessibility Field Notes, I realized that there is really no down-side to longer link text. Rather than the simple "skip" or "skip-link", I now favor "Skip to Main Content - press enter to activate". If you're not using the skip links, the length of the text doesn't matter, you don't see it. If you are using it, it helps, or you don't read it anyway. Win-win. What are skip links? Skip links are links, often hidden, that allow the viewer of a website to skip blocks of content. Why? It's an accessibility feature. Viewers using screen-readers, increased font sizes, no CSS, or a variety of other methods can have difficulty navigating web pages because of the complexity of modern web sites. Websites viewed using accessibility features are often made linear. So if a viewer wants to read the content of your page, they have to read everything that comes first, first. Thinks that's not much? Try reading your site.
- Start with the header,
- Then read the sidebar all the way to the bottom.
- Now, if you're lucky, you found the content you were looking for.
What if it's the wrong page? What if the story it has a second page?
- Start with the header,
- Then read the sidebar all the way to the bottom.
- Now, if you're lucky, you found the content you were looking for.
Third page? You see where this is going? Skip links let you "skip" over blocks of content like the sidebar. They eliminate the need to view irelevent and/or repetitive content you aren't interested in. Go to the page you want, and "skip" to the content you want. A simple solution to an annoying problem.
