Accessibility: Skip links

[cjcenizal]

Problem

A "Skip to main content" link should be presented to allow keyboard and screen reader users to quickly navigate directly to the main content of the page. Without a skip link, keyboard and screen reader users generally must navigate navigation links before ever arriving at the main content. More information is available at http://webaim.org/techniques/skipnav/. Note that this link can be hidden visually until it receives keyboard focus, but should become visible upon receiving keyboard focus to be accessible to sighted keyboard users (see http://webaim.org/techniques/css/invisiblecontent/#skipnavlinks).

We can possibly address this by creating a reusable component.

[timroes]

I would like to discuss whether or not this is needed, if you place proper landmark elements everywhere. screen reader users can use these to navigate not only to the main content, but also some other sections we highlight properly (e.g. see #12633). Do we need this links for keyboard (but not screenreader) users?

Also since these links should be most likely at the very beginning of the page tab order, to properly use them, the page shouldn't have any autofocus to a field somewhere. Currently several pages autofocus to e.g. search fields , which is in my opinion a larger benefit for keyboard (but not screenreader) users.

What's your opinion on these? @cjcenizal @aphelionz

Also related to the discussion in #11515

[cjcenizal]

@timroes Interesting! Can you demo the UX for us with the landmark elements? Once I understand what it's like for people to navigate a page using those, I'll be able to form an opinion.

[timroes]

A landmark navigation in Voice Over for example could look as follows:

I've also talked with several actual users of assistive technologies about their approach when entering a new webpage, and all of them replied, that they are first trying to use the landmark navigation or the heading navigation (partly also depending on the actual type of page they are visiting) before they start tabbing at all. Thus they agreed, that skip links are usually very unnecessary for them if proper landmarks have been implemented. Since we did this, I would close this issue.