Thread Subject: Re: teitac-websoftware Digest, Vol 2, Issue 20

Note

This archival content is maintained by WebAIM and NCDAE on behalf of TEITAC and the U.S. Access Board . Additional details on the updates to section 508 and section 255 can be found at the Access Board web site.

From: Stephen Baum
Date: Tue, Nov 14 2006 11:00 AM

I find I want a little clarification regarding 21(b), so I'll provide
a real example. Many applications for the blind, including at least
one screen reader and one scan and read application that I can think
of, disable the keyboard shortcut for the StickyKeys accessibility
option in Windows. The default shortcut is to press Shift five times
in a row. That is problematic in those applications, because the
prominence and position of the shift keys make them valuable keyboard
real estate - they are often used to, for example, advance or rewind
by a certain amount of text while reading continuously. The keyboard
shortcut would get in the way, because its pretty reasonable to
expect a customer to press the right shift key repeatedly to move
forward by five (or more) units. The shortcut is disabled (if it had
been enabled), when the application starts, and reenabled (again, if
it was originally disabled by the application), when the application exits.

Does that fall within, or outside of, this language?

Stephen


>Proposed: 21(b) Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features
>of other products (including Operating Systems) that are identified as
>accessibility features, where those features are developed and documented
>according to industry standards.

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