RE: Accesskey consensus

Jesper,

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Bill on this one.  In the earlier thread
(I went back and re-read it), you stated:

>Please consider, how easy it is to generate first letter as ACCESSKEY by
>code. You just use a string function returning the first letter as
>ACCESSKEY.

This is impractical and unworkable even in the simplest implementation.
Consider a basic Calendar, with the days of the week as named anchors using
your proposed first letter ACCESSKEY system.  Would ALT* + S take me to
Saturday or Sunday?  What about ALT + T?  Tuesday or Thursday?  (Oops...
can't use ALT + T; IBM Home page Reader uses ALT + T to move into Table
Reading Mode...)

No, I'm afraid that ACCESSKEYs is/was an interesting idea, but unrealistic
under real world conditions.  As I stated before, implementation brings with
it the possibility that it either will not be available to all users, or
that the keystroke combination encoded within the web page may conflict with
a reserved keystroke combination in an adaptive technology or future user
agent.  This, IMHO, is contrary to the notion of Universal Accessibility,
and so I suggest that the use of ACCESSKEYs be discarded altogether.

JF

(* Assuming Windows OS and IE... replace with equiv in different OS'es and
browsers as required)


> -----Original Message-----
> From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
> Behalf Of Jesper Tverskov
> Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 2:57 AM
> To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: RE: Accesskey consensus
>
>
>
>
> The notion that we only have one set of access keys for the user
> agents and
> web page authors to share is false.
>
> If HTML ACCESSKEY is ever going to be useful web page authors need to be
> able to use any letter or digit they like. It is up to user agents to come
> up with features that can distinguish between the two sets of access keys.
>
> Opera 7.0 uses SHIFT+ESC for the HTML access keys and ALT for the access
> keys in the browser. In Internet Explorer and Mozilla we can use
> ALT+Accesskey to get to the access keys in the web page and ALT
> (and slip it
> again) + Accesskey to get to the access keys in the browser.
>
> If the method to choose between the two sets of access keys in Internet
> Explorer an Mozilla is not good enough for some users they most
> complain to
> the people making the browsers.
>
> In order to advance the course for a more accessible internet web page
> author should already today use all the letters and digits for access keys
> they like. This will put pressure on the browsers and get them moving.
>
> See my article:
> "Use first letter as ACCESSKEY",
> http://www.klapmusen.dk/artikel.aspx?xml=20021031e for other details. The
> article is a little dated, a new edition is in the making.
>
> Best regards,
> Jesper Tverskov
>
>
> -----Oprindelig meddelelse-----
> Fra: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]På
> vegne af John Foliot - bytown internet
> Sendt: 27. maj 2003 17:40
> Til: Tomas Caspers; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Emne: RE: Accesskey consensus
>
>
>
> After conducting an unofficial survey/research project in the summer of
> 2002, I concluded that there really were no useful access keys not already
> reserved by some application or other.  When you take internationalisation
> issues into account, it becomes a hopeless cause.
>
> See: http://www.wats.ca/resources/accesskeys/19 for an opinion
> piece I wrote
> regarding the subject.
>
> JF
>
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
> > Behalf Of Tomas Caspers
> > Sent: Saturday, May 24, 2003 5:57 AM
> > To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> > Subject: Re: Accesskey consensus
> >
> >
> >
> > Hoffman, Geoffrey wrote:
> >
> > > I added some of my own research to the above blog...
> > > couldn't find a list of 'reserved access keys' so I created one.
> >
> >
> >
> > German accessibility evangelist Jan Hellbusch has a short list of
> > accesskeys used by various browsers at:
> > http://www.barrierefreies-webdesign.de/knowhow/tastatur/empfehlung.htm
> >
> > His findings were that the only characters which weren't used in the
> > most common browsers  were c, j and t. Note that he only covers Win98,
> > so the list of "free" keys might even get shorter when you start looking
> > at other OS's and UA's.
> >
> > HTH
> >
> > /Tomas Caspers
> >
> > --
> > Tagesfrische News zur Barrierefreiheit:
> > http://www.einfach-fuer-alle.de/
> > Eine Initiative der Aktion Mensch
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>

Received on Wednesday, 28 May 2003 13:31:02 UTC