- From: Henny Swan <hennys@opera.com>
- Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:19:02 +0100
- To: WAI-UA list <w3c-wai-ua@w3.org>
Folks, Here's a copy of Chaal's mail to WAI-xtech concerning keyboard support and ARIA. Cheers, Henny Begin forwarded message: > Resent-From: wai-xtech@w3.org > From: "Charles McCathieNevile" <chaals@opera.com> > Date: 16 July 2009 16:37:01 BST > To: "wai-xtech@w3.org" <wai-xtech@w3.org> > Subject: Keyboard support and ARIA > > Hi folks, > > I have had a concern for a while (I recall raising it several times > over the last few years, but have been focussed on other things and > not followed so clearly) about the use of pure Javascript to deal > with keyboard accessibility. > > The major issue is the nature of keyboard interaction in Javascript. > Put briefly, it's a horrible mess with no concept of device > independence. So on the face of it, the idea that it would be a good > base for building accessibility seems like an odd notion. > > Digging into the details we find that several attempts to specify > this in a way considered workable have ended with clever people > throwing up their hands and saying "we could document some more of > the current mess, but it isn't actually anything you would want > people to use" (or things to that effect). Changing keyboard > layouts, browsers, devices, alphabets, language - almost anything > causes this to go from a nasty mess to a plain old failure. > > By comparison, the use of tabindex and real links or buttons, as per > old-fashioned HTML, seems to allow for a much more flexible > interaction model. HTML 5's command element, it's improved > specification of accesskey, and the growing understanding that this > stuff should be left to user agents and users rather than page > authors, offers the promise of being able to make keyboard > interaction actually work properly in more than one language or > device without having to develop massive collections of alternatives > with 5-variant testing to choose the right one. > > The migration path, as always, is actually messy. Currently > accesskey implementations range from not very good (e.g. Opera on > desktop which has some bugs and limitations, or really basic phone > browsers that only allow numbers) to the awful (e.g. things that let > pages override normal user agent interface), with a good dose of the > non-existent. Meanwhile, interrupting everything with javascript > means that the issue of where the priority should go is also raised. > > I don't think these are insoluble problems, but I do see a lot of > work moving in a direction that looks like a very ugly ad very > limiting dead-end, that could actually significantly reduce the > practical value of ARIA far below its potential. > > Cheers > > Chaals > > -- > Charles McCathieNevile Opera Software, Standards Group > je parle français -- hablo español -- jeg lærer norsk > http://my.opera.com/chaals Try Opera: http://www.opera.com -- Henny Swan Web Evangelist Member of W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Education and Outreach Group www.opera.com/developer Personal blog: www.iheni.com Stay up to date with the Web Standards Curriculum www.opera.com/wsc
Received on Friday, 31 July 2009 11:20:29 UTC