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| "Skip Navigation" Links | ||
| ======================= | ||
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| <span class="hidden">You are here: </span>[Home](/) > [Articles](/articles/) | ||
| > "Skip Navigation" Links | ||
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| Article Contents | ||
| ---------------- | ||
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| 1. [Overview](#overview) | ||
| 2. [Creating "Skip Navigation" Links](#creating) | ||
| 3. [Browser Quirks](#quirks) | ||
| 4. [Multiple "Skip" Links](#multiple) | ||
| 5. [Alternatives to "Skip Navigation" Links](#alternatives) | ||
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| Overview | ||
| -------- | ||
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| The main content is not usually the first thing on a web page. Keyboard and | ||
| screen reader users generally must navigate a long list of navigation links, | ||
| sub-lists of links, corporate icons, site searches, and other elements before | ||
| ever arriving at the main content. This is particularly difficult for users with | ||
| some forms of motor disabilities. | ||
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| Without some sort of system for bypassing the long list of links, some users are | ||
| at a huge disadvantage. Consider users with no arm movement, who use computers | ||
| by tapping their heads on a switch or that use a stick in their mouth to press | ||
| keyboard keys. Requiring users to perform any action perhaps 100s of times | ||
| before reaching the main content is simply unacceptable. | ||
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| Of course, sighted people who use their mouse do not have any trouble with pages | ||
| such as this. They can almost immediately scan over the page and identify where | ||
| the main content is. In effect, sighted users have a built-in "skip navigation" | ||
| mechanism: their eyes. They can also bypass the many links before the main | ||
| content and click directly on the link they want with the mouse. The "skip | ||
| navigation" idea was invented to give screen reader and keyboard users the same | ||
| capability of going directly to the main content that sighted mouse users take | ||
| for granted. | ||
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| Creating "Skip Navigation" Links | ||
| -------------------------------- | ||
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| The idea is simple enough: provide a link at the top of the page which jumps the | ||
| user down to an anchor or target at the beginning of the main content. For the | ||
| most part, it really is this easy, though there is more than one way to | ||
| accomplish the goal. Some techniques are better than others. The techniques | ||
| discussed here are: | ||
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| 1. Providing visible links at the top of the page | ||
| 2. Providing visible links elsewhere on the page | ||
| 3. Making the link invisible | ||
| 4. Making the link invisible until it receives keyboard focus | ||
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| ### Visible links at the top of the page | ||
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| The easiest method of creating a "skip navigation" link is to put it at the top | ||
| of the page in regular text. Put the corresponding anchor (link destination) at | ||
| the beginning of the main content. | ||
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| The horizontal location of the link doesn't matter much. The link can be on the | ||
| left side, the middle, the right, or in some location in between. The key is to | ||
| **make sure the link is one of the first items** that screen readers hear and | ||
| that keyboard users tab to. Otherwise, users may not realize there is a "skip | ||
| navigation" link there at all, and may waste time trying to muddle through the | ||
| extraneous links. Screen reader users especially may get impatient if they don't | ||
| hear the "skip navigation" link very early in the page. | ||
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| To be optimally usable, the link must also be visually apparent. A very small or | ||
| hidden link does not benefit the audience that most needs "skip" links - sighted | ||
| keyboard users. | ||
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| **The verdict:** This method works and is highly accessible. A disadvantage of | ||
| this approach is that the link may be intrusive to visual design - it must be | ||
| visible and at the very beginning of the page. Also, the link is presented to | ||
| all users, even sighted mouse users who may not use it, or that could | ||
| potentially be confused by it. | ||
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| Example | ||
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| The link is the first item in the page. The anchor or target for the link (where | ||
| the link will jump the user to) is placed at the beginning of the main content. | ||
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| ` <body> <a href="#maincontent">Skip to main content</a> ... <main id="maincontent> <h1>Heading</h1> <p>This is the first paragraph</p>` | ||
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| The target is identified by its `id` attribute value matching the `href` value | ||
| (minus the "\#") of the "skip" link. | ||
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| Alternatively, you can use a named anchor to identify the target for the link, | ||
| though named anchors are no longer conforming in HTML5. | ||
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| ` <h1><a name="maincontent" id="maincontent"></a> Heading</h1> <p>This is the first paragraph</p>` | ||
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| ### Invisible links | ||
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| Many developers worry about the aesthetic impact of "skip navigation" links. | ||
| They may think these links don't look particularly attractive, they "ruin" the | ||
| layout, or that they get in the way of artistic expression. It's easy to argue | ||
| that the links may be confusing for users that do not need them. While a visible | ||
| "skip" link declares a type of distinct commitment to accessibility, to address | ||
| these concerns, the link can be visually hidden. | ||
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| There are a few methods for doing this, but it's vital that the link still be | ||
| usable by all keyboard users, particularly sighted keyboard users. This means | ||
| that the link should be hidden visually by default, but that it should become | ||
| visible when it receives keyboard focus. Some techniques, such as hiding the | ||
| content permanently with CSS, making the link the same color as the background, | ||
| sizing the link to 0 pixels, or placing it on a one pixel transparent image do | ||
| not meet these important requirements. | ||
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| Probably the most accessible method for visually hiding skip links is to hide | ||
| them off screen, then cause them to be positioned on screen when they receive | ||
| keyboard focus. | ||
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| Important | ||
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| Review the article on [Invisible Content Just for Screen Reader | ||
| Users](/techniques/css/invisiblecontent/) for details on using CSS to hide | ||
| "skip" links off-screen. | ||
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| One potential issue with this approach is that if the user navigates very | ||
| quickly using the <span class="keycap">Tab</span> key, the link may be visible | ||
| on the page for only a fraction of a second and may be overlooked. This can be | ||
| partially addressed by ensuring that the "skip" link is visually distinctive at | ||
| the top of the page. Additionally, one could use scripting of (optimally) CSS3 | ||
| transitions to cause the link to animate so it remains visible on screen for a | ||
| period of time. | ||
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| Note | ||
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| You can see an example of a hidden skip link that becomes visible on keyboard | ||
| focus, that also has CSS3 animation to make it visually distinctive and always | ||
| visible on screen momentarily on this very page. Simply navigate through the | ||
| links at the beginning of this page using the <span class="keycap">Tab</span> | ||
| key and watch for the "skip" link at the top left screen. | ||
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| **The verdict:** This method works well for nearly all users. Sighted mouse | ||
| users (who do not benefit from the link) do not see it, screen reader users will | ||
| hear the link, and sighted keyboard users will see the link when they navigate | ||
| to it. | ||
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| ### Which wording is best? | ||
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| There is more than one "best" way to word the link. Here are some fairly common | ||
| examples: | ||
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| - Skip navigation | ||
| - Skip main navigation | ||
| - Skip navigation links | ||
| - Skip to main content | ||
| - Skip to content | ||
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| None of these is inherently better than the others. In general, we prefer "Skip | ||
| to main content" as it explains where they are navigating to versus what they | ||
| are navigating past. Minor variations on these are probably acceptable, such as | ||
| "skip top navigation." Don't get too creative here, or else users may not | ||
| realize what the purpose of the link is. | ||
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| Browser Quirks | ||
| -------------- | ||
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| "Skip navigation" links are such a simple concept that it's hard to believe | ||
| there would be any browser quirks in implementing it, but there are. Some | ||
| browsers do not fully support in-page links. While they may visually shift focus | ||
| to the location of the target or named anchor for the "skip" link, they do not | ||
| actually set keyboard focus to this location. These bugs can potentially be | ||
| addressed by using JavaScript to set focus (using JavaScript `focus()`) to the | ||
| target element. | ||
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| Multiple "Skip" Links | ||
| --------------------- | ||
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| What if a page has multiple sections and/or multiple layers of navigational | ||
| links? Should developers provide a "skip navigation" to each of these sections | ||
| or over each layer or navigational links? In most cases, this is not necessary. | ||
| Remember, the purpose of "skip navigation" links is to reduce the clutter of | ||
| lists of links. Adding more links increases link-clutter. | ||
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| A popular U.S. government site recently had a total of nine different "skip | ||
| navigation" links (the links are hidden using CSS): | ||
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| 1. Skip to content | ||
| 2. Skip to government search | ||
| 3. Skip to bottom nav | ||
| 4. Skip to top nav bar-right aligned | ||
| 5. Skip to By organization | ||
| 6. Skip to contact your government | ||
| 7. Skip to reference center | ||
| 8. Skip to information by topic | ||
| 9. Skip to citizens: get it done online! | ||
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| This brings of the question of whether they need a "Skip the skip links" link! | ||
| By providing a proper document outline, perhaps using HTML5 section elements and | ||
| ARIA landmarks, and simplifying page structure and navigation, typically one or | ||
| two "skip" links is sufficient. | ||
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| Skip links or other in-page links can also be used to allow users to jump to or | ||
| jump over page content. For example, the Table of Contents at the top of this | ||
| page includes in-page links to facilitate navigation to page areas. A "skip" | ||
| link could also be used to allow the user to quickly bypass confusing or | ||
| potentially inaccessible content, such as ASCII art, complex tables, etc. | ||
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| Alternatives to "Skip Navigation" Links | ||
| --------------------------------------- | ||
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| The truth is that "skip navigation" links are a rather clumsy and obtrusive | ||
| solution to a real world problem. They work. They're useful, but they're a bit | ||
| of a hack. They will continue to be useful until a more standardized method of | ||
| designating the difference between navigation and main content evolves and is | ||
| fully supported. With ARIA landmarks and the HTML5 `<main>` element, this is | ||
| closer to becoming a reality. Unfortunately, no browsers yet fully support | ||
| keyboard navigation via these elements. Despite these limitations, there are | ||
| other ways one can facilitate page navigation in addition to "skip" links. | ||
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| ### Navigating by headings | ||
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| The most useful alternative method is to create documents with proper headings | ||
| so that users can skip from heading to heading. Most screen readers allow users | ||
| to listen to a list of headings or to listen to each heading in sequence, | ||
| skipping past the paragraphs, images, links, and other extraneous information. | ||
| If documents are created properly, they can often form an outline of headings, | ||
| which serves not only as a way to skip past the navigation but also lets screen | ||
| reader users "scan" the main ideas of a document without having to read the | ||
| whole thing. Defining your primary document heading at the beginning of your | ||
| main content as an `<h1>` can provide very quick access to the beginning of the | ||
| main content. | ||
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| The one downside to this approach is that only screen reader users have access | ||
| to this functionality. Browsers do not come with this feature. This means that | ||
| sighted keyboard users cannot skip from link to link in the same way that screen | ||
| reader users can. | ||
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| **Verdict:** This method is very effective for screen reader users, but sighted | ||
| keyboard users generally cannot take advantage of it. Even so, there are many | ||
| reasons to use headings, so this method is highly recommended. | ||
|
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| ### Alternate reading orders | ||
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| Some developers place the main content first in the reading order and the | ||
| navigation last - generally using CSS to maintain the navigation first in the | ||
| page visually. This method makes "skip navigation" links unnecessary, but it | ||
| raises another question. Should such sites provide "skip *to* navigation" links? | ||
| This is a tricky question. Links taking users to the navigation are unexpected, | ||
| and can lead to some confusion. With or without "skip to navigation" links, | ||
| screen reader users who want to access the navigation may get lost in the page, | ||
| wondering if there is any navigation. | ||
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| This approach also causes a reading and navigation order that is very atypical - | ||
| and that can be very confusing, particularly for sighted users who are visually | ||
| tracking the navigation focus that seemingly jumps around the page rather than | ||
| starting at the beginning. | ||
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| **Verdict:** The concept can be useful, but users can becomes disoriented with | ||
| an atypical reading and navigation order. | ||
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