One of the biggest challenges of accessibility is random access. Most large websites are designed so that the eye can randomly access any part of the page. Mechanical web readers cannot complete this random access task, but rather progress sequentially through the page. Thus, these readers must go through every single link until the user arrives at the section they want. When they go to the next page they must go through all the steps again. Standardization can provide a method for eliminating the tedium of sequential access.
Websites contain vast amounts of information, parts of which interest different users. While those without disabilities can see a link anywhere on the page, users with screen readers must read the entire page in order. After webmasters spend all the effort to make the site accessible finding a particular piece of information can be so tedious that users might just give up.

A prime example of this problem is to be found on a news website. A screen reader would read the links in the left hand column first, spending a few minutes to complete this task, and then continue with the content. The content area of this site begins with the top story, and is followed by links to other news stories. Subsequent sections contain content on sports, business, world news, national news, politics, law, polls, travel, science and technology news, entertainment, health, travel, career and education. There are alternate sections at times on food, and other topics of interest.

If users want to see the third story in the education area, they must scroll through the entire site to get to the education area, and then scroll through the education page to get to the third story.

WAI guidelines suggest the use of skip links for major groups of links. But skip links offer only a partial solution. The user is still not given an overview of the whole page. The content is not as readily available to the non-sighted user as it is to the sighted user. For a site as large as CNN, even skipping links repeatedly can be time-consuming.

Skip links do not offer an overview of the whole page. Users are often not aware of the following sections until they get there, thus making their search more difficult and time-consuming. A visitor to the CNN site might not know that they have put up a food-related story or that there is something new in education. They may not know that there is a story in the entertainment section that interests them, and if they are not usually particular about entertainment, they may miss it completely.

A standardized PageMap^TM, created by UB Access, is now being included on accessible websites to provide a map of the page, whereby users can click on a standardized alt key to reach a particular section of any page

In addition to the main PageMap ™, a content-specific page map would be resident on each page describing the content, and provide access keys to different content sections on that page. By using one of the keys the browser would jump to that section.

The CNN site, for instance, would have a content specific page map on the main page on the main page, where there would be a separate alt key for each news section (world, politics, entertainment, etc.). By using one of the keys, the browser would jump to that section. On the page with the story there would be a page map linking alt keys to each section for related stories, related sites, and other links provided parallel to the story.

Websites that are compatible with UB Access PageMap would carry an indication that this is so, with a link to explain the PageMap keys and what they do.