accesskey feedback

The spec says:

"Once a user agent has selected and assigned an access key for an element,  
the user agent should not change the element's assigned access key unless  
the accesskey content attribute is changed or the element is moved to  
another Document."

A UA might want to change an element's access key in the following  
situation:

    <input accesskey=a> (no "a" key available, let's assign "1" instead)
    later in the document:
    <input accesskey=1> (oops, let's reassign the previous one to "2")

Also, it makes sense to have accesskey be scoped to each top-level  
browsing context rather than per document, so moving to another document  
might still be within the same top-level browsing context. (We want  
accesskeys in iframes to work without having to click in the iframe first.)


The spec should say that the UA is allowed to assign the same access key  
to multiple elements. When there are multiple such elements, the UA should  
focus the element instead of triggering the Action and the UA should cycle  
through the elements.

When there's just one element with a specific access key, the spec should  
allow the UA to either trigger the Action or to focus the element (based  
on user preferences).

The spec should state that the accesskey feature is not dependent on a  
keyboard device but a hint that the author thinks that this element is  
worthy of having a special easy-to-access mechanism. For instance, on a  
device with touchscreen and no keys, the UA could provide just a menu.

-- 
Simon Pieters
Opera Software

Received on Wednesday, 17 June 2009 11:51:03 UTC