Re: Accesskeys (was RE: Accessibility features)

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 04:32:26 +1200, Martin Stehle <pewtah@snafu.de> wrote:

> http://2bweb.de/accesskey/ (in german)
>
> In english: The way is to avoid letters because of the problems many
> articels wrote about. Instead one could use numbers. So a suggestion
> is:

> Accesskey +  0: Homepage
etc...

The UK has a requirement to do this with a standard set for all UK  
government websites. (I forget the link - it is from teh department of  
prime minister and cabinet, but it looks similar (albeit slightly  
different) to this one.

There is nothing wrong with some group proposing these. There are some  
problems using accesskey in some sites, as my good friend John pointed out  
in ths thread already.

In particular, since no browser has a very good implementation, and  
several browsers (IE, Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox) have a very bad one, it  
is worth providing information about how to deal with accesskeys for as  
many browsers as you can - either by pointing to each browser's page about  
how to activate them, plus to the patches that are necessary for IE and  
Mozilla family browsers, or by providing a quick summmary on it yourself.

> "Accesskey" can be the ALT key in IE etc.

Yes. This is how they have managed to nearly destroy accesskey. (As well  
as not doing the sensible things to make it really useful). Sigh.

I guess I will have to write a proper reference on this, rather than  
simply answering John each time (or calling for him if I am first in the  
thread).

By the way, Opera is actively pushing W3C to fix Accesskey specifications  
in a way that doesn't require changing the markup, and will hopefully mean  
that all you have to do to update your pages about accesskey in the future  
will be to note that "new browsers fixed this, will show you the key you  
need and how to activate it"...

We hope to see a real change in this over the course of 2006. It's about  
time.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile                     chaals@opera.com
   hablo español  -  je parle français  -  jeg lærer norsk
      Peek into the kitchen: http://snapshot.opera.com/

Received on Thursday, 2 February 2006 03:50:23 UTC