Re: argument for only ONE set of radio button navigation keys

Gregory,

If no button is selected what do you think about giving focus to the radiogroup element?

Jon


---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:48:30 -0400
>From: "Gregory J. Rosmaita" <oedipus@hicom.net>  
>Subject: argument for only ONE set of radio button navigation keys  
>To: wai-xtech@w3.org
>
>
>aloha, all!
>
>in a recent update to the ARIA Best Practices wiki, the following 
>was added
>
><quote cite="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RadioButton">
>  * Pressing the arrow keys moves focus and selection.
>  * Up or Left Arrow key press moves focus forward between buttons 
>    in the group.
>  * Down or Right Arrow key press moves focus backward between 
>    buttons in the group
><unquote>
>
>i would like to register a vote of strong disagreement of such a 
>keybinding -- there should be only ONE standardized mechanism for 
>cycling through radio button groups/fieldsets regardless of how the 
>grouping is visually presented: 
>
>GJR's PROPOSED CHANGE TO TEXT
>
>1) establish focus on a radio button group through TAB navigation or 
>   activation of LABEL or ACCESSKEY (or equivalent) 
>
>2) cycle through radio button group using EITHER the up/down arrows 
>   or the left/right arrows; i would prefer up/down, to accomodate 
>   vertically aligned languages, as well as keeping the left/right 
>   arrows for expand/collapse; 
>
>3) when focus is given to the radio button group, the focus should 
>   start with the first radio button in the group, unless there is 
>   a pre-defined default "on/checked" state, in which case the up/down 
>   arrows go backwards and forwards from the default radio button 
>   respectively 
>
>      * UpArrow = move backwards through radio button group; 
>        user should have option to be informed that the upper 
>        boundary has been reached, or the ability to loop in 
>        both directions. 
>
>      * DownArrow = move forewards through radio button group; 
>        user should have option to be informed that the upper 
>        boundary has been reached, or the ability to loop in 
>        both directions. 
>
>4) user can move out of radio button fieldset using TAB to go to next 
>  form control or SHIFT + TAB to place focus on the previous form 
>  control 
>
>END GJR's PROPOSED TEXT
>
>the thought of using left and right arrows is troubling because 
>that is a general gesture for expanding and collapsing tree views,
>while a radio button grouping should be covered by up and down 
>arrows, regardless of the presentational layout of the radio 
>button grouping, and the less users have to use the same buttons
>for different widgets, the better the user experience...
>
>gregory.
>
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology (DRES)

WWW: http://www.cita.uiuc.edu/
WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/

Received on Friday, 24 August 2007 19:50:42 UTC