- From: Yvette P. Hoitink <y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl>
- Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2003 14:47:40 +0200
- To: "'WCAG List'" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Roberto Scano asked: > There are some techniques about a "map" for the accesskey? > > eg: > > 0 - Home Page > 1 - Access Key page > 2 - Site Map > 3 - Contact e-Mail ... One big problem I always have with accesskeys is that there is a risk of 'hijacking' key combinations that are already in use by the user. For example, Alt-H opens the Help menu in an English version of Internet Explorer. But when I attach H as an accesskey, suddenly Alt-H can no longer be used to open the Help menu. Also, especially people with disabilities may have assigned keyboard shortcuts to functions they use a lot which would get overridden. Adapting another persons environment is _not_ what I call accessibility. For this reason, I only use numbers as accesskeys. I tend to use 1 for the start page, 2 (to) for the skiplink (which goes directly TO the content) and 4 (for) for the searchbox. I use 5-0 for the main navigation links . This leaves me 3 another important link, such as the contact page. These keys are explained in the Help section of the website, which is referenced by <link rel="help">. Should we make it a best practice to use numbers as accesskeys? I think the hijacking problem is a serious one which needs to be addressed. Sometimes, however, I do use letters for accesskeys, especially in complex forms. I then assign the first letter of each label as an accesskey (and make it so that each label has a different first letter). Using CSS, I give the first letter of the labels a different appearance. These accesskeys are once again explained in the help section of the website. You could even make it so that a list of accesskeys is inserted into the page from CSS if the page is accessed by a non-visual browser. This is a CSS2-only feature which is not widely supported yet by assistive technologies. (In fact I don't know any that support this but am not too familiar with all the AT's out there). Yvette Hoitink CEO Heritas, Enschede, The Netherlands
Received on Friday, 26 September 2003 08:47:59 UTC