Re: aria-kbdshortcuts feedback

On Wed, Feb 24, 2016 at 1:14 PM James Craig <jcraig@apple.com> wrote:

> In addition, an accesskey replacement spec would have the ability to
> specify end use behavior (and event model changes) in a way that would be
> inappropriate to do in an ARIA spec. Dominic, would you be willing to
> pursue the solution in that spec rather than in ARIA?
>

I took a closer look. Current limitations of the accesskey spec that I see:

1. It doesn't require the user agent to activate the element, it's allowed
to just focus it. That means that if a web app currently has shortcuts that
activate something, switching to accesskey wouldn't achieve the same thing.

2. Accesskey still only allows you to specify a single key, the user agent
chooses the modifier keys. This wouldn't help a web app that wants to
trigger when you press an unmodified key, or a web app that wants to listen
for a specific shortcut.

Here are some examples of real-world shortcuts on six popular sites:
* 'C' to compose a new message in Gmail/Inbox
* Ctrl+Shift+C to do a Word Count in Google Docs
* Shift+A to "reply all" in Yahoo Mail
* 'L' to like the current story on Facebook
* '/' to focus the search box on Twitter
* 'C' to create an issue on GitHub

The accesskey spec doesn't support *any* of these.