I do not recommend putting the navigation after the content. In fact I would go as far as to say it's a really bad practice because it violates every user's expectation of where the navigation will be. Using CSS to position it above the content makes things even worse because the tab order no longer follows the visual order.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines specifically state that the DOM order should match the visual order - see http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20120103/C27 I have no problem with the 'Return to top of page' link, although the purists would argue that it is merely replicating the function of the Home key. Of course tablets and mobile phones don't have a Home key, which sort of undermines that argument. Steve From: li...@webstandardsgroup.org [mailto:li...@webstandardsgroup.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Rapley Sent: 05 June 2012 22:37 To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org Subject: Re: [WSG] WCAG 2.0 compliance and best practise on the "Skip to" function [SEC=UNOFFICIAL] I agree with the consensus that less is more with the skip navigation links at the top of the document. "Skip to main content" in the majority of cases will be all you need. If you are getting to a point where by rights you need a skip link, to skip the list of skip links, as they have grown so long you know you are following a bad path ;) Another school of thinking is to write the HTML source order so that navigation appears after the content, and use CSS to relocate the menu to the top of the page for sighted users. Of course you would still benefit from a skip link at the start of the navigation menu to skip past it/return to start of content. Note, it is a common misconception that users of assistive technologies linearly read a web page, when in fact the tools they have at their disposal allow them to traverse a page in multiple different ways. For instance, they can call out a dialog which lists all of the links on the page, or gain context by traversing a semantic document tree of the nested headings on the page. In these contexts, skip navigation is largely useless. This may be overkill, I will be interested to hear opinions, but I also place a note with ability to return to the top of the page too: <div class="accessibility" role="note"> <small>End of page.</small> <hr /> <a href="#page">Return to top of page</a> </div><!-- / .accessibility --> </body> </html> I guess this could be extended to have a further link to "Return to start of content." The idea with this is to notify the user that they have reached the end of the document, and rather than leave them at a loose end, give them options to traverse elsewhere. On 5 June 2012 05:49, Blumer, Luke <luke.blu...@ato.gov.au<mailto:luke.blu...@ato.gov.au>> wrote: Hi All, We are currently in the process of redesigning our website and are looking into the "Skip to" functionality. We are currently considering using: * Skip to Search * Skip to Primary Navigation * Skip to Secondary Navigation * Skip to Main Content * Skip to Sitemap We are wondering if there is any information on best practice for the "Skip to" function and whether there is a generally acceptable limit as to how many "Skip to" links should be used? We are also wondering whether we should be considering other ways for users to navigate around our pages such as AccessKey http://validator.w3.org/accesskeys.html and whether this technique should be used to reduce the number of "Skip to" links we have listed above? Is there any native browser functionality that performs any of these functions that we should account for? Thankyou in advance for any advice. Regards, Luke Blumer Web Project Officer | Corporate Relations Australian Taxation Office Phone: 02 6216 2970 ********************************************************************** IMPORTANT The information transmitted is for the use of the intended recipient only and may contain confidential and/or legally privileged material. Any review, re-transmission, disclosure, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited and may result in severe penalties. 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