[extra88]

No. It is reasonable and expected that some users experience page content linearly so designers and developers have to create experiences that takes that into account. That includes not skipping important content. If it's important, don't skip it. If it's not important, maybe it's okay to skip it but there should be means for users to explore and discover what's on the page (like give the preceding block of text a heading that indicates what that section of content is about).

[rendall]

Hmm. "All users should experience the page linearly because some do" is not really an argument that works.

[extra88]

A sighted user with a cursor or touchscreen can be as non-linear as the size of the viewport and the layout allows.

All designers should design the linear experience as well as the non-linear experience because the linear is all some users will have. Responsive design is a move in that direction, a smartphone portrait display is much narrower than a laptop display so the content tends to be in a more linear layout. Experiences through voice assistants are also linear.

[rendall]

Let's just step back and state our terms. Are we agreeing that website placing the cursor in a search box is an example of autofocus?

I believe it is reasonable to do this if there is no other purpose for the page.

If I understand correctly, it is your contention this is unreasonable because it will skip all of the other information about the page for screen readers.

My question is why screen readers cannot, or should not, handle this special case? Isn't there an argument that it helps users with hand-eye coordination problems? I am absolutely for a11y, but when there is a trade-off in degraded experience for the majority, I'd like to hear arguments why the interpretive tools used by the minority cannot handle that interpretation.