Re: Key bindings... (user agents - was accesskey was ...)

John Foliot - WATS.ca wrote:

> Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>  
>
>>And the HTML and similar groups should leave that bit of markup alone,
>>    
>>
>
>  
>
>>fix  their specifications, and let us move on to deal with other 
>>problems. (And  my good mate John should see the light and stop 
>>worrying about the key  attribute so much, in order to concentrate on 
>>getting rel right. But he'll  keep on with both, I guess ;)
>>
>>    
>>
>
>When a foolproof method exists to avoid tom-foolery such as: 
>
>  "Acc<span style="text-decoration:underline;">e</span>ssibility" 
>
>...then I will rest.  The continued problem with author proposed keys is
>that the author will then set about telling the end user which key it is
>- this is simply human nature - why else choose a specific key if you do
>not plan to share that info?  And if they get it wrong, the same old
>issues as before crop up.  
>
>Declare the intent, and leave the end user mechanism to the end user:
>remember too that we are talking about more than just user agents here,
>there is also the Adaptive Technology layer for those users who need it
>and they often have keystroke requirements as well.  
>  
>

I'm not disagreeing with anything that you have said, but I think you 
should just take some space to understand the designs that were 
implemented way back in 1999 and the early 2000s, especially when people 
saw the link between accelerator keys in GUI design and accesskeys.  
Please don't go jumping all over these people, as the way you present 
your case seems to me that you don't really understand the path they 
took to implement these designs, all in good faith that they were 
enhancing accessibility and usability.  But as one of them, I thank you 
for all the issues that you have raised to help broaden the discussion 
and education on this issue, and that a better approach to this is 
offered because of these discussions.


Regards
Geoff Deering

Received on Wednesday, 11 January 2006 17:12:40 UTC