Currently the skip link anchor is right at the top of page template, this is wrong because ideally the skip link should jump you to the main content, however at the moment you skip to the breadcrumb, and have to tab through those, the page title, the links etc etc. The best place for it is right above the messages.

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#1 move-skip-link-anchor-931408.patch882 bytesJeff Burnz

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Jeff Burnz’s picture

Status: Active » Needs review
StatusFileSize
new882 bytes
Everett Zufelt’s picture

The skip link anchor should be directly before the node title IMO. This will help to build context for the content, especially if the user has access to local tasks for the node.

mgifford’s picture

mgifford’s picture

@Everett, where Jeff has it the user will get notifications like error messages that are related to their content.

If we put it right before the title they will skip all of the status messages which might be telling them something important, right?

Everett Zufelt’s picture

Ah yes. If the status / error messages are before the node title, which I now recall they are in Seven, then the anchor should be at the beginning of the messages.

mgifford’s picture

Status: Needs review » Reviewed & tested by the community

This is a simple patch. It does move the user closer to the content. I've tested this with a keyboard & ff and it works fine.

Everett Zufelt’s picture

Issue tags: +Quick fix

Agreed

Jeff Burnz’s picture

Status: Reviewed & tested by the community » Needs review

Back to the point regarding the page title - in Seven the title is very near the top, right after the breadcrumbs, the problem is that everything else is between the title and the actual content of the page - the main and secondary menus for example. My question is, is this a problem? My thinking is that you use skip links more when you are familiar with the site and want to speed up browsing. The context of the page (the title) is in the title element, so that is read out already.

So, yeah, its a quick fix, if this is what we really want, to my mind it is, proficient uses will want to jump everything and get directly down to business.

Everett Zufelt’s picture

@Jeff

There really isn't a science with this. I think your "get directly down to business" statement is the key to me. The two chunks of content that should definitely come after the anchor are messages (errors etc.) and the actual node body. Ideally node title as well, but if it is a long way away from the messages and body then we're good to go with bypassing it.

Thanks for rolling this.

Jeff Burnz’s picture

Status: Needs review » Reviewed & tested by the community

OK, back to RTBC, happy with that. I recall reading some research a couple of years ago that found that skip links are not heavily used by novice internet users and when the user is new to the site, however the proficient the novice becomes at surfing and the more familiar the user is the website the more frequently skip links are used. They are a tool for the more experienced user who want to get things done quicker.

dries’s picture

Status: Reviewed & tested by the community » Fixed

Committed to CVS HAED. Thanks.

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)
Issue tags: -Quick fix, -Accessibility

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for 2 weeks with no activity.