Level A · WCAG 2.0
2.4.1 Bypass Blocks
There is a way to skip past blocks that repeat on every page.
Partly automated Some failures are detectable, others need judgement.
How it fails in practice
A forty-link mega-menu that a keyboard user tabs through on every single page before reaching the content.
How to fix it
Add a skip link as the first focusable element, and use landmark elements — header, nav, main, footer — so assistive tech can jump between regions.
At a glance
- Level
- Level A — the minimum. Failing one of these usually makes something impossible rather than merely hard.
- Principle
- Operable
- Guideline
- 2.4 Navigable
- Added in
- WCAG 2.0
- EN 301 549
- 9.2.4.1
- Automated check
- Partly automated
Partly automated
How far an automated check gets
A tool finds some failures here and cannot see the rest. A clean automated result means the checks that exist found nothing — not that the criterion is met. This is the gap that makes a green scan look like an accessible site, and it is where the keyboard agent, the agents still in development and a human reviewer do the remaining work.
Every page is read for a block of links before the content and for a way past it — a skip link, a main landmark or a heading where the content starts; a page with none of them fails. Whether the way past works well for the people using it is still a person’s call.
Rules that check this criterion
bypassPage must have means to bypass repeated blocksskip-linkThe skip-link target should exist and be focusablekeyboard:skip-linkNo skip link Keyboard agent
The rule ids are axe-core’s (version 4.14.0), the open-source engine our scan runs, and our keyboard agent’s — the names a report or a CI log will show. An underlined id has a page of its own here.
Related criteria
Other criteria under the same guideline.
Further reading
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Landmark (ARIA landmark)
A page region with a defined role (such as header, nav, main or footer) that screen reader users can jump to directly.
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Skip link
A link at the top of the page ("Skip to content") that lets keyboard users bypass repeated navigation (WCAG 2.4.1).
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keyboard:skip-link
Without a skip link, keyboard users tab through the whole menu on every page (WCAG 2.4.1). How to add one that works, with code example.
Find out which criteria your site fails
We scan up to 100 pages against WCAG 2.2 AA, send the keyboard agent through the page you name and email you the report — free, once, no strings.