Skip Navigation Links

Juicy Studio offer a very good summary on the subject “Skip links are an accessibility feature to help visitors navigate their way around a document. Ask two different developers on how best to implement skip links, and you’ll very likely receive two different replies. Some people like visible skip links, others like hidden skip links, and some people don’t like skip links at all.”

Considerations:

  • Make them visible. You may feel they add clutter to the page, but it allows keyboard users to take advantage of the quick jumps as well as those using screen reading software.
  • Use a phrase that makes sense. Just saying skip navigation tends to mean that you will by-pass the main menu to go to the main content but there may be other areas in the menu that could be useful – so as in Moodle it may help to say Skip Activities meaning go to the Activities section etc. or on other pages Skip to content.
  • Navigate by headings. This is another option and also works for those using speech recognition where saying the heading immediately sends the person to that spot. This also helps those using screen readers that can directed to skip to headings. It does not however solve the problem for the person who cannot use a mouse.
  • Content is king? If the webpage is mainly content with very few navigational elements, there may be no need for ‘skip navigation’. See Jakob Nielson Useit.com http://www.useit.com/

Additional Resources: