Re: Article: Why Aren’t Tooltips Triggered by The Keyboard?

On 23/11/2010 21:17, Jeanne Spellman wrote:
> http://blogs.sitepoint.com/2010/11/23/why-arent-tooltips-triggered-by-the-keyboard/
>
>
> IMO, the most interesting part was in the comments:
>
> <quote>
> In short, the norm for tooltips is for their display to be decoupled
> from keyboard focus, and this has clear usability benefits for users who
> can use both the mouse and keyboard. Tying tooltip display to keyboard
> focus would remove that benefit to the majority of users, who are used
> to having it (and might switch to another browser because of such an
> annoyance).
>
> The correct way to address the accessibility issue here, I would say,
> would be to provide a method for keyboard users to peruse the tooltips
> in a page independently of the current keyboard focus. Perhaps a new
> pair of keyboard shortcuts for “Show Next/Previous tooltip”. Screen
> reader users, similarly, should be free to browse the tooltips present
> in a page without losing their place while filling out a form.
>
> I feel like there’s a solution in the offing, but it’s not as simple as
> tying tooltips to keyboard focus. Perhaps Opera will be the first
> browser to offer keyboard-driven tooltip navigation; it seems like it’s
> the browser that tends to lead the way with these sorts of refinements
> these days.
> </quote>

This seems like an over-engineered suggestion to me - a completely 
separate way to trigger tooltips separate from keyboard focus?

The problems that Kevin mentions in his comment, just before your extract:

<quote>Consider, that with mouse-triggered keyboard shortcuts, you are 
able to give a form field keyboard focus, view the tooltip, and then 
dismiss it (by moving your mouse away) so that it’s not in your way as 
you actually fill out the form field.</quote>

This to me is merely an issue of positioning of the tooltip. If browsers 
displayed the tooltip even on keyboard focus, but kept it out of the way 
of the field (while additionally checking if it was indeed a keyboard 
navigation that set focus to the form field, rather than a click with 
the mouse, and allowing for something like ESC to dismiss the tooltip 
explicitly), this wouldn't be an issue.

<quote>Likewise, you are able to view the tooltips of other nearby form 
fields without moving the keyboard focus from the current field (say, to 
determine how they differ from the field you are about to fill in).</quote>

Keyboard users would be able to quickly TAB/SHIFT-TAB to adjacent 
fields, being able to do the same.

IMO again, of course,

P
-- 
Patrick H. Lauke

Web Evangelist
Developer Relations Team
Opera - http://www.opera.com

Received on Tuesday, 23 November 2010 22:21:24 UTC