skip links

[deborah]

I'd like to find out how many people would like it if we had skip links, which are essentially links which are the first content on the page, which allows someone (usually someone using a screenreader, keyboard navigation, or magnification) to go directly to the main content on the page.

Poll #10458 Skip Links

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

View Respondents

Do you like it when sites have skip links?

View Answers

yes
13 (61.9%)

no
1 (4.8%)

I don't know
3 (14.3%)

sometimes
4 (19.0%)

Would you use skip links if they were available at Dreamwidth

View Answers

yes, all the time
1 (4.5%)

yes, on some pages or occasionally
15 (68.2%)

only if they are visible
3 (13.6%)

no, they aren't useful to me
3 (13.6%)

other, which I will describe in comments
0 (0.0%)

If you would use them, could you explain how you access the site?

View Answers

With a screenreader
2 (10.5%)

Visually but with zoom/magnification
6 (31.6%)

Visually without substantial magnification
6 (31.6%)

Other
5 (26.3%)

Comments

[amethystfirefly]

What're skip links? From what I can see they're basically like clicking on a subsection in an article on Wikipedia?

[deborah]

Argh, I had a description but I had some trouble posting the poll and it looks like the explanation and everything that wasn't the poll itself got removed. I just added the following explanation back to the top of the post:

"I'd like to find out how many people would like it if we had skip links, which are essentially links which are the first content on the page, which allows someone (usually someone using a screenreader, keyboard navigation, or magnification) to go directly to the main content on the page."

If you are using a screenreader, then skip links are the first thing read aloud, allowing you to skip straight to the main content without going through all the navigation. They also end up being useful for people using magnification (so they don't have to drag all around the page looking for the main content), and some people using keyboard navigation (so they don't have to tab through all of the navigation options if they just want to see the main content).

[amethystfirefly]

Thanks for the clarification. :)

(Also for clarification of my answer: I sometimes use magnification, sometimes not.)

[jbanana]

I don't use any assistive technology, but I do sometimes switch off CSS (it's easy in Opera) in order to get rid of annoying visual effects. In this case, skip links can be very useful.

[treeowl]

I've been trying to learn about web design recently, and skip links have always seemed like an ugly workaround to me, but perhaps a necessary one for now. HTML5 header and nav tags seem like they help with this sort of thing, but not at all perfectly. Are there DW layouts/themes that go straight to page content?