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Navigation mechanisms

Access barriers
Guidelines for overcoming access barriers
Activity

These are elements which assist users in navigating through a site, for example navigation links, search functions, drop-down menus, etc.

Access barriers

Unclear and inconsistent navigation mechanisms hinder the access of all users. It is easy to get lost in a site if clear and consistent navigation mechanisms are not provided.

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Guidelines for overcoming access barriers

  1. Provide clear and meaningful link text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, in HTML, write 'Information about plants' instead of 'click here'.
  2. Provide meaningful information about pages and sites with metadata. NAVIGATION EXAMPLE 2
  3. Inform users about the general layout of a site (for example, via a site map or site index), including information on accessibility features that are built into the site. NAVIGATION EXAMPLE 3
  4. Provide navigation mechanisms in a clear and consistent manner. For example, navigation links should appear at the same place between pages. NAVIGATION EXAMPLE 4
  5. Enable navigation links to highlight when users are accessing the content linked to it so that they know where they are in the site. NAVIGATION EXAMPLE 5
  6. Use clear spaces, as appropriate, to help create easy-to-read navigation.
  7. Use headings (H1, H2, etc) in your pages. These headings are extracted by screen readers and allow users to navigate directly to that content.
  8. Use a 'skip-navigation' link if there are a lot of navigation items so that users of adaptive technology can skip irrelevant navigation content that appears on each page. NAVIGATION EXAMPLE 8
  9. Provide a TabIndex to help users move through the page using the tab key. NAVIGATION EXAMPLE 9
  10. Use the <LINK> tag to add navigation for Mozilla and text browsers like Lynx. NAVIGATION EXAMPLE 10

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Activity

Use the checklist below to assess any accessibility barriers as a result of navigation mechanisms that may be present in your website. If you have ticked 'no' for any item, go to the Guidelines for how to overcome this barrier.

Using navigation mechanisms

  1. Clear and meaningful link text, that makes sense when read out of context, is provided.

  2. Meaningful information is provided about pages and sites by means of metadata.

  3. Users are informed about the general layout of the site.

  4. Navigation mechanisms are clear and consistent.

  5. Navigation buttons highlight when users are accessing the content linked to it, so that they know where they are in the site.

  6. Clear spaces are used to help create an uncluttered look.

  7. Headings are used to structure information on the page.

  8. An option to skip navigation is provided.

  9. A logical tab order has been designed using TabIndex.

  10. Links have been provided using 'Link rel' for text-based browsers.

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