Accessible navigation

  • Accesskeys and reserved keystroke combinations
     "In a non-scientific study conducted in the summer of 2002, we researched the availability of available accesskeys which had not already been reserved by various other software technologies which might be employed by various users. The results indicated a real problem in that most ALT + keystroke combinations (assuming the Windows operating platform) have already been reserved by one type of application or another."
    (Derek Featherstone, WATS.ca)

  • Accesskeys: unlocking hidden navigation
    People with limited mobility may have a hard time controlling a mouse to click on links, and tabbing through menus can be slow going. The W3C introduced the accesskey attribute to enable users to select the appropriate key on their keyboards and navigate to a particular link.
    (Stuart Robertson, A List Apart)

  • Contradictions in accessibility: link and default link styles
    By convention on the web, links and visited links are a different colour. Jakob Neilsen has recently discussed this in his May 3rd, 2004 AlertBox Link Colour where he concludes: 'using different colours for visited and unvisited links makes your site easier to navigate and thus increases user satisfaction'. Most mainstream browsers have this behaviour built in to them by default. But what about WCAG Priority 1 Guidelines, Checkpoint 2.1?
    (Derek Featherstone, Box of chocolates)

  • Don't 'click here': writing meaningful link text
    "Link text must be written with care. To be usable, accessible and to help with search engine indexing, link text must clearly identify the target of the link. 'Click here' does not give any indication of the content on the linked page."
    (Dey Alexander, Dey Alexander Consulting)

  • Navigation accessibility 1: menus and links
    "There are many good books and websites with information about designing usable navigation systems. Rather than going over well-travelled ground, this document is the first of two that will consider the accessibility implications of website navigation and how access to site content for people with disabilities might be enhanced.
    (Roger Hudson, Web Usability)

  • Navigation accessibility 2: accessing page content
    "Helping the user locate and go to a web page is crucial to site navigation, but it is only part of the story. Once the user has arrived at the page they should then be able to easily access the content it contains. This is not likely to be problem for an able-bodied person who can use a mouse and quickly scan the content of the page."
    (Roger Hudson, Web Usability)

  • Skip links
    "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. This article examines the different approaches of implementing skip links."
    (Gez Lemon, Juicy Studio)

  • Skip navigation links
    This is an analysis/study of techniques for 'skip navigation' links--links that allow users who cannot use a mouse, to jump over repeated navigation blocks to access page content.
    (Jim Thatcher, Jim Thatcher.com)

  • Using accesskeys is easy
    "Quite a few web developers still get a glint of terror in their eyes when someone suggests they add accesskeys to their sites. Well, don't be scared. This article is very short for a very good reason. If you want to use them, accesskeys are so easy to add, you'll wonder why you never did before."
    (Greg Harvey, Sitepoint)

  • Using accesskeys: is it worth it?
    "The HTML4 feature known as ACCESSKEY is a navigational enhancement that allows you to jump to an active element (such as a form control or a link) on a page with a single keystroke."
    (Derek Featherstone, WATS.ca)