Re: 2/4/1999 teleconference conclusions (items 1-12 of Techniques open issues list)

At 10:09 AM 2/8/99 -0600, Wendy A Chisholm wrote: 

>
> 6.  "accesskey" example
> We answered the following questions during the call:
> Q1. The example places the "accesskey" attribute on the LABEL element
> associated with the form control. Is it      appropriate for the LABELs to
> have "accesskeys" or should the controls have them? 
> A1.  The HTML spec says that "accesskey" may appear on links, form controls,
> and labels.  Therefore, if the label and control are associated, it
shouldn't
> matter.
>
> Q2. Does "accesskeys" introduce or create any usability issues? For example,
> should this be a UA thing or should authors continue to create? 
> A2.  As in other software, the author/authoring tool ought to create them,
> while the UA handles displaying and using them.
>
> Q3. What about pages that have too many elements to have unique accesskeys,
> is this poor design? Should the form be broken up onto different pages? 
> A2.  yes, this is bad design.  Since accesskey uses unicode, there are
36,000
> characters to use for accesskeys <grin>.
>
> Q4. Are there implications on future versions of HTML? 
> A4. We did not come up with nor forsee any.


The group was clearly suffering from barn fever at this point.

Yes, there are unresolved usability issues around the layering of keystroke
commands from multiple authors of the web page, the browser and the operating
system.  Bryan has been quite eloquent in UA on this point.  Even if the
keyboard is the most broadly accessible single command device, it is not
equally accessible to all and AccessKeys are device specific.

These issues will not likely be resolved in time to add any significant new
knowledge to this volume, however.  They _will_ likely generate considerations
for future versions of HTML or XML applications used like HTML.

On Q1 it would be good to check with UA.  Even if it is just to add notes in
the UA guidelines that say what needs to happen and that it needs to happen in
certain ways regardless of whether the AccessKey invocation leads to a control
or a label.  If there is going to be a difference in browser handling
depending
on where the AccessKey resides, then authors reading this volume need to
understand and bind accordingly.

Al

Received on Monday, 8 February 1999 16:14:23 UTC