RE: ACCESSKEY on FORM controls

I would add that users of Windows and some other operating systems are used
to finding access keys on nearly all dialogs and forms. Keyboard-centric
users find they save time and effort, and this is even more important for
users who have difficulty typing. We consider it a critical goal that
applications and forms written in HTML be no less accessible than those
written with other technologies.

Another suggestion might be that UA provide an option to visually indicate
the access key for any element, such as by appending a constructed string to
the end of the label or even inserting a textual label where there was none.
This would certainly alter the presentation and layout of the page, but no
worse than the ability to force all ALT= text to be displayed in place of
images regardless of the image's size.

	-----Original Message-----
	From:	Charles (Chuck) Oppermann [SMTP:chuckop@microsoft.com]
	Sent:	Thursday, June 18, 1998 4:30 PM
	To:	'jkrieger@cast.org'; w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
	Subject:	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 Friday, 19 June 1998 02:56:57 UTC