Allow users to skip redundant links

Requirement: Pages must feature some means of skipping navigational links and other items to quickly access page content.

Many sites are designed with a consistent set of links and other navigation tools near the top of each page. While these features are very helpful and can greatly increase the usability of the site, for those who use text-only browsers or are visually impaired and using a screen reader, they must tab through a long series of links before getting to content.

For this reason, it is best to provide some short-cut links so that people can quickly access content.

One technique is to make an anchor at the start of your content:
<a name="content"></a>

Then make the first link on the page a link to this anchor:
<a href="#content">Skip to Page Content</a>

To avoid conflicts with graphical design issues, this first link on the page can be set as white against a white background. Those using a graphical, style-sheet enabled browser will not see the link. All others will.

Developers should also consider grouping links together and providing other shortcuts so that it becomes easier for users to find the navigation menu, contact information, and other such page elements.