activating behaviours

On Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:04:04 +0200, Steve Faulkner
<faulkner.steve@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Chaals,
> you wrote:
>
> "Why? The specific mechanism for activation should be able to vary 
> between browsers*. Authors trying to guess which keys I have available  
> on whatever device is in front of me cause massive problems in  
> general.It is true that not all users know how to use their browser, but  
> actively making it not work isn't a very good solution and should only  
> be done as a last resort."
>
> There are standard keys for activating standard controls, which should  
> work pretty much everywhere.

No, there are common conventions, which should generally work on systems  
that can offer them sensibly.

> a button has 2 common keys assigned, enter and space.

Sometimes. For probably 100 million users (TV browsers and mobile phone  
browsers), the 'ok' button in the joystick control activates buttons. For  
a handful more, it's a special-purpose key - for example used to mirror  
half a keyboard for one-handed users, or to swap input methods, or various  
other important functionalities.

> Some AT provide hints on how to use controls they recognise:I detailed
> examples here, a while ago for a range of ARIA roles (which map onto
> standard accessibility API roles:

> http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/aria-tests/user-input-widgets.html

> design patterns for a range of controls are documented in the wai-aria
> authoring guide: http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-practices/#aria_ex

Comments to come...

> So the effect of having a button that cannot be activated using the space
> key as expected,  may be a problem.

Indeed. It makes a browser less usable if it is expected to behave that  
way. On the other hand, if the browser is expected to use space for  
something else, and the author has trapped it for their page only, you're  
creating a new usability problem by interfering with the existing UI the  
user knows.

This is exactly the same as the problem that was created by bad  
implementations of accesskey (in fact if there had been better ones from  
the get-go people probably wouldn't have come up with this "solution" in  
the first place).

Having the page content determine the particular activation for UI is  
generally a terrible idea - as recognised for more than a decade when  
accessibility guidelines first said "make sure you enable access for all  
users to all controls". Javascript keyboard traps are a terrible way of  
trying to do that, and if at all possible should be avoided for the  
massive range of problems they introduce. Not recommended as a solution,  
because then we go from one problem to two problems...

cheers

On 9 July 2012 18:20, Chaals McCathieNevile <w3b@chaals.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, 09 Jul 2012 16:31:03 +0200, Emmanuelle Gutiérrez y Restrepo
>
> <coordina@sidar.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>>
>> Good point Bryan,
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> "Proper scripting is always necessary toensure functionality for users  
>>> that cannot benefit from ARIA."
>>>
>
>
>
>>
>> It is important to note that, for all developers.
>>
>
>
>
> Indeed.
>
>
>
>
>>
>> 2012/7/9 Bryan Garaventa <bryan.garaventa@whatsock.com>
>>
>>>
>>> Actually I ran across this not too long ago, where I had a Span tag  
>>> with tabindex=0 and role=link, and tried using just a click event to  
>>> handle >>>the keypress.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> This worked fine for screen reader users, but failed completely for  
>>> keyboard only users not using a screenreader.
>>>
>
>
>
> On what browser(s)? Did you file bugs, or do you know of them for the  
> relevant browsers? Maybe you could add them to the a11ybugs list of  
> things to >annoy browser makers about...
>
>
>
>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>
>>>> From: Steve Faulkner
>>>>
>
>
>
>>>
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I think pretty much all browsers allow
>>>>>
>>>>> activating click events with the keyboard, and will add things if  
>>>>> you give them a tabindex. So adding specific keyboard >handling is  
>>>>> probably >>>>>redundant if you're just using click (mouseover,  
>>>>> focus, and various other things are still not so good).
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think you are right, but need to take into account keyboard  
>>>> behaviour for things like buttons, which require activation on space  
>>>> key press as >>>>well as enter key
>>>>
>
>
>
> Why? The specific mechanism for activation should be able to vary  
> between browsers*. Authors trying to guess which keys I have available  
> on whatever >device is in front of me cause massive problems in general.  
> It is true that not all users know how to use their browser, but  
> actively making it not >work isn't a very good solution and should only  
> be done as a last resort.
>
>
>
>
>
> *for usability the basics should be the same where possible - e.g. Opera  
> should fix the fact that they use the tab key for form-only navigation  
> and >ctrl-arrows for "tabbing" through all active things, because  
> although their overall keyboard navigation implementation was light  
> years more advanced >than anyone else, when there is a convention as  
> strong as the tab key it is unhelpful not to follow it)
>
>
>
>
>
> cheers
>
>
>
> Chaals
>
>
>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> see  
>>>> http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2011/04/html5-accessibility-chops-just-use-a-button/  
>>>> for more details.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> regards
>>>>
>>>> Steve
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 9 July 2012 11:47, Chaals McCathieNevile <w3b@chaals.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  On Sun, 08 Jul 2012 22:29:30 +0200, Ramón Corominas  
>>>>> <listas@ramoncorominas.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi all, and apologies for cross-posting.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Last     Saturday I gave a presentation in the SpainJS event about  
>>>>>> creating     accessible apps using WAI-ARIA. The idea was to show  
>>>>>> JS >>>>>>developers that     accessibility is an essential  
>>>>>> component to achieve quality coding, and the     potential of ARIA  
>>>>>> to create more >>>>>>accessible apps.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've uploaded the     slides here:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://ramoncorominas.com/spainjs/
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Nice   :)
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Comments, suggestions or corrections are welcome     (smile)
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I think pretty much all browsers allow   activating click events  
>>>>> with the keyboard, and will add things if you give   them a  
>>>>> tabindex. So >>>>>adding specific keyboard handling is probably  
>>>>> redundant   if you're just using click (mouseover, focus, and  
>>>>> various other things are   still >>>>>not so good).
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd be interested in learning if that is not the   case...
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> cheers
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Chaals
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --Chaals - standards   declaimer
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -- with regards
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Steve Faulkner
>>>>
>>>> Technical Director - TPG
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> www.paciellogroup.com | www.HTML5accessibility.com |  
>>>> www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives -  
>>>> dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/
>>>>
>>>> Web Accessibility Toolbar -  
>>>> www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Chaals - standards declaimer
>



-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG

www.paciellogroup.com | www.HTML5accessibility.com |
www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner


HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives -
dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/
Web Accessibility Toolbar -
www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html







-- 
Chaals - standards declaimer

Received on Tuesday, 10 July 2012 13:04:59 UTC