Re: text reader question

At 10:10 13/08/02 +0100, Paul Crichton wrote:

>I've seen a couple of sites
>with 'skip navigation' anchors to avoid having to read the links (and vice
>versa at the foot of the page).  I thought this would be quite good to
>implement.

Skip navigation links are a good idea.

If you only want to offer them to blind users using screen readers, then a 
transparent image would probably be suitable, but I urge you to consider 
the other users who might benefit. In particular, people who are browsing 
without a mouse, sighted or otherwise, would benefit from the presence of 
the skip navigation link. Many of these people won't know of its existence 
if it is just a transparent image.

A skip navigation link is an important part of any navigation system - and 
it is an often neglected one[1]. Most designers don't object to a home link 
on each navigation bar, and it might be worth exploring it from this angle. 
'Skip Navigation' at the top is just like 'Home' at the bottom.

Andrew

[1] I'm as guilty as everyone else in this respect.

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