Re: penetrating analysis of accesskey alternates

It seems like any kind of keyboard mapping implemented via markup is 
going to fall short. In the web 1.0 world of static pages where clicks 
followed links to reload pages, markup-based keyboard controls would not 
be an issue. Today many sites update content on the page by ajaxing in 
new stuff and/or manipulating the DOM to create/modify/destroy nodes at 
will. These actions are primarily implemented via client side Javascript 
so any solution which plays well is going to need to map keyboard 
controls to JS methods/functions or resign themselves to web 1.0 
applications. In particular the ideal solution will bind a keyboard 
combination to a DOM node to a function/method. In this way hitting that 
keyboard combination will only activate the JS function/method when 
focus is on that particular DOM node (contextual behaviors). Maybe I'm 
missing something but I can't imagine an HTML construct which would 
allow me to annotate a DOM node (maybe CSS selectors?) not to mention a 
JS function or method. Even if we could the function or DOM node might 
not even exist to be bound until later after the page loads - putting it 
beyond the scope of the HTML parser to instrument. This branch of 
standards definition feels like it is constrained to the point that it 
may not be all that useful. The solution set feels more like API than 
markup.

CB

oedipus@hicom.net wrote:
> aloha, all!
>
> it would be well worth everyone in the WAI's time to review robert 
> burns' analysis of the objectives in improving accesskey (based on 
> the pro and con argumets listed under the rationale for deprecating 
> accesskey)
>
> the accesskey deprecation page in HTML WG wiki space is located at:
>
> http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/DroppedAttributeAccesskey
>
> RBurns' contributions can be directly accessed using the following long,
> probably line-wrapping archive-breaking URI below:
>
> <http://esw.w3.org/topic/HTML/DroppedAttributeAccesskey#head-
> 22efce57efc348efacfea2261f305615a5882d12>
>
> or, if you are able to navigate by headers, it appears on the wiki 
> page under the level 2 heading "Considering solutions other than 
> removing the attribute"
>
> it is an excellent review of the pros and cons and suggested 
> improvements, and highly recommended reading for anyone interested 
> in the future and/or improvement of the accesskey as defined in 
> HTML 4.01
>
> gregory.
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>    Gregory J. Rosmaita: oedipus@hicom.net
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>   

Received on Monday, 27 August 2007 20:05:37 UTC