Improve keyboard user navigation with additional in-page links #5104
Description
This work follows on from the 1.9 audit:
This is not within the requirements of that success criterion, it extends its spirit to further improve the experience of users reliant on keyboard interface. This work is beyond the minimum set by WCAG 2.2 AA.
Rationale
We already have skip-to-main links that only show on keyboard focus and allow users to skip over the navigation and header, direct to the main landmark. This enables us to satisfy 2.4.1. We also have tables of content and back-to-text links between endnotes and references and our main article texts, this extends the spirit of 2.4.1 by considering expected user paths through the page rather than simply whether content is repeated, and was a user-request.
This issue proposes that we look more broadly at the front of house pages and identify other areas where the expected user-journey differs significantly from the tab order in order to include skip links that will show on keyboard focus. Note, this is mostly aimed at visual keyboard users, as we have already included landmarks to allow screen reader users to jump around the page more easily.
This direction of travel matches the developing WCAG 3.0 guidelines, in particular "Comparable keyboard effort".
Work identified (so far):
- Review latest information on WCAG 3.0 to consider that direction of travel and any additional requirements for keyboard navigation.
- The articles page - a skip-to-filter / skip to results link, so that the whole of the results list need not be navigated in order to move between them.
- table of contents for all pages with more than one heading.
- invite user suggestions of other areas that would benefit.