Web Accessibility:Navigation
On web pages, hyperlinks are used to help users move within a document, to other pages within a site or to other pages on the web. They are activated by user action and can be associated with text, graphic/multimedia buttons or image maps. The links can be embedded within the text of the document or grouped to form a menu of navigational elements. Good navigation design helps the visitor easily find what they seek.
Below you will find a list of recommended best practices that will make your web pages more accessible:
The recommended design construct is to separate presentation from content using CSS for layout, however carefully designed layout tables, when used judiciously, can be a very useful tool for page layout to address browser compatibility and other issues.
- Provide a method to skip repetitive links
- Group menu links into logical sets and sub sets across the site, use <H> tags for each group heading
- Develop a vertical rather than horizontal hierarchy of menu items and use <UL> tag to create list of links
- Label links so that they make sense when removed from context
- Avoid duplicate link names
Resources
[1] Seven steps to easy navigation
[2] Designing Web Navigation
[3] Breadcrumbs
[4] Effective Web Navigation
[5] Designing Accessible Navigation
[6] Web Accessibility Best Practices- Navigation