Jmax/lg 11304 reported html accessibility issues

[jmax-gsa]

🎫 Ticket

Link to the relevant ticket.

🛠 Summary of changes

Remove 'Skip to main content' link from base layout.

📜 Testing Plan

Run the test suite.

[aduth]

I don't think we'll want to remove the skip link, since even if a screen reader user could navigate the page using existing landmarks, it's still useful for both (a) screen reader users who don't use landmarks to navigate a page, and (b) keyboard users.

We have a similar ticket in our team's backlog (LG-11274) and I wrote a comment summarizing why I don't think this is an issue:

The original report references Success Criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks, which itself does not require that all content be included in a landmark. ARIA11 (Using ARIA landmarks to identify regions of a page) is one technique which can satisfy the success criterion, since a screen reader can allow a user to navigate page content using landmarks, which is why it's important that all meaningful page content be included in a landmark. However, a skip link (G1: Adding a link at the top of each page that goes directly to the main content area) is not meaningful content and only exists to provide a convenient way to navigate to the main content of a page. Notably, it's also an alternative sufficient technique to satisfying Success Criterion 2.4.1. Many validator tools which check for content inside landmarks either make exceptions for skip links ("keep all content, excluding skip links, in designated areas") or even as mutually exclusive options with skip links ("you might use ARIA Landmarks to provide a simple replacement for a skip navigation link"), since both are options to allow a user to skip to relevant content of a page.

Conversely, including a skip link inside a landmark may provide a worse experience, since if someone uses landmarks to navigate the page, it's unlikely they would be interested in navigating to the portion of the page including the skip link. At best, this would be redundant, and at worst misleading.