Test results.

At the bottom of this page is a table which lists the results of five skip link techniques and how will they work from the keyboard. The skip link works from the keyboard if when you tab to the link (or us the A key in Opera) and press enter, the visual focus changes (if necessary) - but most importantly, the next tab goes to the first link after the target of the skip link. When that doesn't happen, the in-page link is not working and there is a "No" in the table..

There is a Link element inside the <head> with a skip to content1:

Here's the code: <link rel="contents" title="From link element Skip to Contents" href="#content1" /> . I can't find any technology that sees this link at all.

This is the first test using a simple named anchor for the target.

Skip to named anchor

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The named anchor immediately follows this paragraph "<a name="content1"></a>" It works for me the same whether name="content1" or id="content1". With IE6 (on XP professional) the tab after the skip is back at the skip link, i.e., back to the first link. HPR 3.0 fixes that. With HPR the link works correctly with both name and id. Working correctly in this case means that the tab after the skip is "Section 508 1."

Target of the first skip link is immediately before this text.

Web Site Accessibility Assessments

Are you concerned about the accessibility of your organization's web site? Does the site comply with the Section 508 1 web accessibility standards? Does your web site satisfy the Priority 1 Web Content Accessibility Checkpoints from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)? Those are questions that I can explain and that I can answer for you in detail and with care.

This is the second test using a table cell for the target.

Skip to named anchor in a table cell
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The named anchor immediately follows this paragraph "<a name="content2"></a>." It is in a table cell - in a table constructed just for it "<table><tr><td><a name="content2"></a></td></tr></table>." This is a technique used by http://webaim.org. In this case (with both name and id attributes) the skip functions correctly with the tab (and enter) keys.

Target of the second skip link is immediately before this text.

Web Site Accessibility Assessments

Are you concerned about the accessibility of your organization's web site? Does the site comply with the Section 508 2 web accessibility standards? Does your web site satisfy the Priority 1 Web Content Accessibility Checkpoints from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)? Those are questions that I can explain and that I can answer for you in detail and with care.

In this third test (suggested by Julian Rickards) the heading is the target via ID.

Skip to heading with an id
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The Heading tag is intended to be the target of the link: "<H1 id="content3">Web Site Accessibility Assessments</H1>." This doesn't work at all with IE6 from the keyboard with no assistive technology - focus goes to top.

Web Site Accessibility Assessments

Target of the third skip link is the heading before this text.

Are you concerned about the accessibility of your organization's web site? Does the site comply with the Section 508 3 web accessibility standards? Does your web site satisfy the Priority 1 Web Content Accessibility Checkpoints from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)? Those are questions that I can explain and that I can answer for you in detail and with care.

In this fourth test (also suggested by Julian Rickards) the remaining content at the target is nclosed in a div with the ID (content4).

Skip to content marked with <div> and id
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The following content is in a div with id="content4". This doesn't work at all for me with IE6 and no AT.

Target of the fourth skip link is a div just before this text.

Web Site Accessibility Assessments

Are you concerned about the accessibility of your organization's web site? Does the site comply with the Section 508 4 web accessibility standards? Does your web site satisfy the Priority 1 Web Content Accessibility Checkpoints from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)? Those are questions that I can explain and that I can answer for you in detail and with care.

In this fourth test (also suggested by Julian Rickards) the remaining content at the target is nclosed in a div with the ID (content4).

Skip to content with link target
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The fifth test is a skip whos target is a nemed anchor made nto a "self-referencing link." This works in all combinations I have tried.

Target of the fifth skip link is an empty (tsk tsk) link just before this text.

Web Site Accessibility Assessments

Are you concerned about the accessibility of your organization's web site? Does the site comply with the Section 508 5 web accessibility standards? Does your web site satisfy the Priority 1 Web Content Accessibility Checkpoints from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)? Those are questions that I can explain and that I can answer for you in detail and with care.

Test results

"Yes" means that the skip link worked with the keyboard in the sense descried above. The surprises for me in the table below are indicates in red with !. In particular, the No for Window-Eyes when the target is in a table cell is a complete surprise - It seems to work sometimes and sometimes it doesn't work. I thought making the target a link was the most reliable but it turns out that method does not doesn't work in Opera!

Test Results
Target of skip link IE6

JAWS 5.0

 HPR 3.02 W-E 4.50 Opera NN 7
Simple empty named anchor - no table No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Named anchor in a table cell Yes Yes Yes No ! Yes Yes
Heading with i d No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
<Div> with i d No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Named anchor which is a link Yes Yes Yes Yes No ! Yes
Link element in Head ? ? ? ? ? ? In properties