6.2 Grouping and bypassing links
Checkpoints in this section:
* 13.6 Group related links, identify the group (for user agents), and, until user agents do so, provide a way to bypass the group. [Priority 3]
* 10.5 Until user agents (including assistive technologies) render adjacent links distinctly, include non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces) between adjacent links. [Priority 3]
When links are grouped into logical sets (for example, in a navigation bar that appears on every page in a site) they should be marked up as a unit. Navigation bars are usually the first thing someone encounters on a page. For users with speech synthesizers, this means having to hear a number of links on every page before reaching the interesting content of a page. There are several ways to allow users to bypass groups of links (as users with vision do when they see the same set on each page):
* Include a link that allows users to skip over the set of navigation links.
* Provide a style sheet that allows users to hide the set of navigation links.
* Use the HTML 4.01 MAP element to group links, then identify the group with the "title" attribute.
In the future, user agents may allow users to skip over elements such as navigation bars.
Example.
In this example, the MAP element groups a set of links, the "title" attribute identifies it as a navigation bar , and a link at the beginning of the group links to the anchor after the group. Also, note that the links are separated by non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces).
<BODY>
<MAP title="Navigation Bar">
[
Bypass navigation bar]
[
Home]
[
Search]
[
New and highlighted]
[
Site map]
</P>
</MAP>
<H1><A name="how">How to use our site</A></H1>
</BODY>