Article: Why Aren’t Tooltips Triggered by The Keyboard?

http://blogs.sitepoint.com/2010/11/23/why-arent-tooltips-triggered-by-the-keyboard/

IMO, the most interesting part was in the comments:

<quote>
In short, the norm for tooltips is for their display to be decoupled 
from keyboard focus, and this has clear usability benefits for users who 
can use both the mouse and keyboard. Tying tooltip display to keyboard 
focus would remove that benefit to the majority of users, who are used 
to having it (and might switch to another browser because of such an 
annoyance).

The correct way to address the accessibility issue here, I would say, 
would be to provide a method for keyboard users to peruse the tooltips 
in a page independently of the current keyboard focus. Perhaps a new 
pair of keyboard shortcuts for “Show Next/Previous tooltip”. Screen 
reader users, similarly, should be free to browse the tooltips present 
in a page without losing their place while filling out a form.

I feel like there’s a solution in the offing, but it’s not as simple as 
tying tooltips to keyboard focus. Perhaps Opera will be the first 
browser to offer keyboard-driven tooltip navigation; it seems like it’s 
the browser that tends to lead the way with these sorts of refinements 
these days.
</quote>

Received on Tuesday, 23 November 2010 21:17:57 UTC