Re: Mapping for aria-keyshortcuts in AXAPI?

Joanie, please leave this "not mapped" in AAM for 1.1. 

Since we're getting away from using "ARIA" in API property names, and because this property is not yet mapped, please don't list it. It'd be bad to document API in a formal TR when it's not supported and likely to change.

To fill in a bit more detail for Chris, this is a Google proposal because the many web apps include custom shortcuts for everything (mostly single-letter keys). Domenic mentioned It's unlikely they'd use the same shortcut across platforms, so for example, 

The Windows version might list aria-shortcuts="Control+8"
The Mac version might list aria-shortcuts="Meta+8" (e.g. Command+8)

I've already pointed out that this API will be difficult to do well across platforms and locales. Many keyboards have totally different layouts than US English, with some characters requiring different modifier keys to access. For example, you have to hold Shift to access the number keys on french keyboards, so if you wanted a primary modifier + "8" it gets even more complicated:

Authors wishing to localize would need to know all these rules:

aria-shortcuts="Control+8" (US PC)
aria-shortcuts="Meta+8" (US Mac: e.g. Command+8)
aria-shortcuts="Meta+Shift+!" (French Mac; not a typo, 8 is Shift+! in France)
aria-shortcuts="Control+Shift+_" (French PC; again, not a typo, 8 is typed different on French PCs and Macs)

"Shift+1" becomes ambiguous in French ("What is shifted may never shift."), and there is no Web API to figure out which keyboard a user has. 

> On Jun 28, 2016, at 3:50 PM, Joanmarie Diggs <jdiggs@igalia.com> wrote:
> 
> On 06/28/2016 06:27 PM, cfleizach@apple.com wrote:
>> 
>>> On Jun 28, 2016, at 3:24 PM, Joanmarie Diggs <jdiggs@igalia.com> wrote:
> 
>>> The spec [1] currently states, "Note that Meta corresponds to the
>>> Command key on Apple computers." So we presumably need a similar
>>> statement for Alt, which seems to correspond to the Option key.
> 
> That Alt corresponds to Option is now stated in the spec. [1]

That's still problematic: Alt is actually fn+Option on macOS (note the top corner of the Option key), but no one would use this. It' may be better to leave this an unformatted string, that is just spoken literally to the user. 

Authors would have to localize and platformize (?) on so it'd be the authors responsibility to send a value of "Alt F" on Windows, and "Option F" on Mac. 

> If there
> are any others which need to be added, please let me know.
> 
>> We probably want to inform what the consumers of this API should do with this info... 
>> 
>> that is) does the screenreader directly announce these keys, or do they map them back to their platform specifics. And then have the mapping be provided in the spec so that we know Alt -> Option and Meta -> Command and so on
> 
> I'll leave it to others more familiar with this property to chime in.
> But what the spec states is:
> 
>    User agents MUST NOT change keyboard behavior in response to the
>    aria-keyshortcuts attribute. Authors MUST handle scripted keyboard
>    events to process aria-keyshortcuts. The aria-keyshortcuts
>    attribute exposes the existence of these shortcuts so that
>    assistive technologies can communicate this information to users.
> 
> --joanie
> 
> [1] https://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/master/aria/aria.html#aria-keyshortcuts
>

Received on Wednesday, 29 June 2016 05:46:48 UTC