WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: accesskey

for

From: Accessibility India
Date: Nov 9, 2010 7:06AM


Hi Bruna,

My experience says that use of access keys is fine unless it does not
coinside with short-cuts of browsers, assistive technologies and
operating systems. Generally developers take care of all these but let
me quote an example where I have observed a coinside of accesskey of
the website and short-cut of assistive technology.
In the website "www.mail.com, if you login you will have an link to
calender. When we clikc on the calender we have options "Previous week
and next week".
This options are provided with short-cuts "Previous week control + alt
+ page-up, Next week with control + alt + page down, where as same
short - cuts are used in JAWS (screen reader) for increasing and
decreasing rate of speech speed.

Hope it helps.

On 11/9/10, <EMAIL REMOVED>
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> We use access keys on internal applications that people use frequently. That
> way they learn the access keys that they need. For externally facing sites
> we don't employ them due to the risk of overriding other keys. Internally we
> have full control over the browser, OS, and AT so we know which keys are
> still available.
>
> Mike Moore
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Bruna Poletto
> Salton
> Sent: Tuesday, November 09, 2010 6:50 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] accesskey
>
> Thanks Denis.
>
> This actually helped a lot. We believe that the shortcuts are a good thing.
> All my blind co-workers really use them and expect that the website will
> provide shortcuts.
> But, there are some other people who think there's no need to offer
> shortcuts. So, we're still discussing about this issue. I think it's gonna
> take some time until we put a closure on this.
>
> Thanks a lot.
>
> Bruna Poletto Salton
> Projeto Acessibilidade Virtual da RENAPI | Núcleo Bento Gonçalves
> http://bento.ifrs.edu.br/acessibilidade
> (55)(54) 3455 3219
>
> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 11:27 AM, Denis Boudreau
> < <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:
>
>> Hi Bruna,
>>
>> We've asked ourselves the same question as we were developing the
>> accessibility standards up north in Quebec[1]. Accesskey have always been
>> a
>> matter of religion: people are usually either for or against them.
>>
>> Given the discoverability issues related to accesskeys and the fact that
>> an
>> organization just cannot expect its users to learn/remember the special
>> keys
>> reserved on every website they visit, we decided that accesskeys would not
>> be allowed on public websites at all.
>>
>> However, on intranets or applications (where people were expected to use
>> them on a regular, if not daily basis), then accesskeys can certainly
>> prove
>> useful because users might be tempted to learn and remember them in order
>> to
>> improve their efficiency.
>>
>> Same logic went for multimedia players, because we expect to offer a
>> standardized player for every government agency or organization. Relying
>> on
>> the same player and making sure it uses control keys can and actually
>> proves, to be useful.
>>
>> We recommended using the following, which have always been consensually
>> approved:
>>
>> 1 = Homepage
>> 3 = Site map
>> 4 = Search
>> 9 = Contact Us
>> 0 = Accessibility
>> s = Skip link
>>
>> No recommendations were provided as of yet regarding a multimedia player.
>>
>> Hoping this helps.
>>
>> [1] http://www.msg.gouv.qc.ca/normalisation/standards/accessibilite/
>> --
>> Denis Boudreau
>> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2010-11-05, at 8:52 AM, Bruna Poletto Salton wrote:
>>
>> > Hi everyone,
>> >
>> > I always read all the messages from this list, but this is the first
>> > time
>> > I'm actually asking something.
>> >
>> > I'm Brazilian and I'm working on the brazilian government accessibility
>> > guidelines. We are not really sure if we should recommend the use of
>> > accesskey in the brazilian government websites. Do people really use the
>> > given shortcuts? Do they really work well?
>> >
>> > Thanks!!
>> >
>> > --
>> > Bruna Poletto Salton
>> > Projeto Acessibilidade Virtual da RENAPI | Núcleo Bento Gonçalves
>> > (Virtual Accessibility Project)
>> > www.bento.ifrs.edu.br/acessibilidade
>> > (55) (54) 3455 3219
>> >