Re: Accesskeys

For me, I think the main issue with access keys is the lack of consistent
use across websites. Any navigation aid that is likely to change from one
website to another is less helpful to me as a user than a single shortcut
that takes me directly to the main navigation for the site I'm visiting,
made easier with HTML5 structural elements and ARIA landmark roles. That
said, I guess it depends on exactly what the access key is being used to
trigger.

Access keys, or even configurable keyboard shortcuts in web apps, seem to
me like power user features that are way too complex to get right across
platforms and browsers. It leaves me still asking the question: Is it worth
it?

Jon


On 24 October 2014 10:54, Howard Leicester <howard_leicester@btconnect.com>
wrote:

>  Thanks Charles,
>
>
>
> Background – much appreciated!
>
>
>
> I’m one of those folk dependent on ATs  to develop websites, documents,
> etc.
>
>
>
> So we’re stuck in the very problem we’re trying to resolve.
>
>
>
> Onwards and upwards!
>
>
>
> Howard (Leicester)
>
>
>
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> *From:* chaals@yandex-team.ru [mailto:chaals@yandex-team.ru]
> *Sent:* 24 October 2014 10:29
> *To:* howard_leicester@btconnect.com; 'John Foliot'; 'Oscar Cao'; 'WAI
> Interest Group'
> *Subject:* Re: Accesskeys
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 24.10.2014, 10:59, "Howard Leicester" <howard_leicester@btconnect.com>:
>
>  AccessKeys have conflicts with many Assistive Technologies.
>
>  This is probably a true statement, but far too general to be helpful :S
>
>  So, I think I’ve seen some WAI comment in the past and some UK sites are
> following this approach, that: AccessKeys are best avoided because of AT
> conflicts.
>
> The area of general keyboard access remains problematic (under the above).
>
>  Yeah. In the case where people provide keyboard access through
> javascript (which is sadly very common), there are conflicts with even more
> things.
>
>
>
> As a simple example, twitter.com conflicts with at least two of my
> everyday mainstream browsers, which it wouldn't do if it had used accesskey
>
>  But AT conflicts seems an uncharted and addressed topic in general.
>
>  Actually there has been a lot of charting and attempting to address the
> problem.
>
>
>
> The situation today is probably under-documented, since the current
> approach of the industry has been to avoid accesskey and use javascript
> instead, which means there is far less effort put into documentation and
> implementation than there was in the previous decade.
>
>
>
> For various reasons using javascrip instead is generally *even*worse* than
> using accesskey, and often *much*worse* :(
>
>
>
> cheers
>
>
>
> --
>
> Charles McCathie Nevile - web standards - CTO Office, Yandex
> chaals@yandex-team.ru - - - Find more at http://yandex.com
>
>
>



-- 
Jon

http://dotjay.co.uk/
dotjay@dotjay.co.uk

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