RE: Action-2036 aria-keyshortcuts

That paragraph about keyboard conflicts seems like authoring guidelines that do not need to be in the spec, especially since there are probably plenty of situations where violating them would be just fine. If such guidance has a place anywhere, it is likely in the APG.

WRT user agent conflicts, most browsers use ctrl+s for saving the page, but lots of online editors use ctrl+s to save the online document in the cloud. This does not create any loss of user agent functionality because it is very easy and efficient to use a browser menu to navigate to the user agent function. 

Similarly, Assistive technology developers have put significant effort into providing keys that will not conflict with any other application. That is the primary purpose of special screen reader modifiers like insert and capslock, which are supported by all the screen readers with which I am familiar and, I believe, by many magnifiers as well.

When it comes to operating system conflicts, as Joseph pointed out, it may not be possible for a web-based app to override the operating system functionality, so mentioning such conflicts in the ARIA specification does not add any value. Those conflicts will be found out with even minimal testing of keyboard functionality.

In practice avoiding conflicts is a good intention but not always necessary and in some cases unavoidable if you are going to create a great experience for a web-based product.

Matt King

-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Scheuhammer [mailto:clown@alum.mit.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, April 7, 2016 8:09 AM
To: Richard Schwerdtfeger <richschwer@gmail.com>; ARIA <public-aria@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Action-2036 aria-keyshortcuts

On 2016-04-05 11:40 AM, Richard Schwerdtfeger wrote:
> 5. Made authors aware that they must take into consideration ATs who 
> steal specific keys before they ever reach a web page and key 
> sequences reserved by the browser.

Include avoiding keystrokes used by the OS itself.  An example from OS X is "cmd+space" which invokes spotlight search.  AFAIK, that cannot be intercepted and overridden within a web page.

The relevant text from the spec is this paragraph:

"Authors SHOULD avoid using keyboard shortcuts that are used by the user agent. Implementing keyboard shortcuts that conflict with user agent, will result in a loss of user agent functionality. Authors SHOULD avoid keyboard shortcuts that are used by supported assistive technologies running on the intended operating system platforms. Assistive technologies frequently steal keys at the operating system level before they ever reach a user agents."

The first sentence advises authors to avoid keystrokes that are used by the user agent.  The second says to avoid those used by an AT.  One more
sentence:
"For the same reason, authors SHOULD avoid keyboard shortcuts that are used by the operating system itself".

Also, the second sentence uses the singular for "user agent", and needs an article.  Change:

"Implementing keyboard shortcuts that conflict with user agent, will result in a loss of user agent ..."

to:
"Implementing keyboard shortcuts that conflict with the user agent will result in a loss of user agent  ..."


[1] https://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/action2036/aria/aria.html#aria-keyshortcuts

--
;;;;joseph.

'Die Wahrheit ist Irgendwo da Draußen. Wieder.'
                 - C. Carter -

Received on Thursday, 7 April 2016 19:45:04 UTC