RE: ACCESSKEY on FORM controls

The Microsoft Enable web site uses ACCESSKEY=Q to get to the QuickLink list
box of choices.  A experienced user of the site can go in, press ALT+Q,
arrow to the correct link and press Enter to get to it.  If using Tab
navigation, they would have to wade through a long series of links.  

Large forms will have difficulty with assigning unique identifiers.
ACCESSKEY comes in handy for HTML dialogs and smaller forms.  I would say
that if your form is so large that you cannot come up with unique
ACCESSKEY's, then it's a usability problem and suggestion that the page be
broken up.

-----Original Message-----
From: Josh Krieger [mailto:jkrieger@cast.org]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 1998 8:31 AM
To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: ACCESSKEY on FORM controls


> 8.9. Furnish keyboard shortcuts for form elements

This guideline's example places the ACCESSKEY attribute on the
LABEL associated with the form control. 

1. If this is the preferred method of doing this sort of 
thing, then why do all the form controls have ACCESSKEY 
attributes themselves?

2. <BUTTON> and <INPUT TYPE=BUTTON> don't have
labels associated with them and the ACCESSKEY should
be directly specified on these controls. 

3. I don't quite understand why we even have access keys
for forms at all. It seems to me that for any practical
web-based form it isn't really usefull not to mention
kind of crazy if the keys change on every web page.
On some forms, because of their size, using accesskeys
would be impossible. Does someone have a comprehensive 
vision of how this is supposed to be used?

Josh Krieger
CAST

Received on Thursday, 18 June 1998 20:29:57 UTC