A11ying with Sanna - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines a guide to the accessibility requirements
2 Operable

2.4.1 Bypass Blocks

Conformance level: A
Criterion released in WCAG version: 2.0

Official description of the success criterion

A mechanism is available to bypass blocks of content that are repeated on multiple Web pages.

What to do?

Provide a mechanism to bypass repetitive blocks of content.

Why is it important?

Improves navigation efficiency for users relying on assistive technologies.

Common pitfalls

Not having the "Skip to main content" link present at all. Sometimes it might be present, but it might try to jump to an ID that doesn't exist on the page.

Not realising this type of approach can, and also should be used with other types of content that repeats on several pages.

How to test for it?

Check if the first focusable element on the page is a "skip to main content" type of link. These should jump over the repeating header element on a page.

More about this criterion elsewhere