Thread Subject: Topic for Discussion

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From: Jennifer Dexter
Date: Tue, Jan 09 2007 8:30 AM
Subject: Topic for Discussion

Hello everyone. In an effort to keep us all moving towards our final
goal of beginning to answer all of the questions we have raised, the
co-chairs have decided that we will be posting on issue from the issue
list on the Wiki every day. Please respond to the listserv with your
answers and they will be compiled on the Wiki issues page. If you want
to see the model, the issue page now includes some responses to the
questions from Jim Tobias.



Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step of
a process listed in the documentation?



Jennifer Dexter

Assistant Vice President, Government Relations

Easter Seals

1425 K Street, N.W.

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20005

202-347-3066

Fax: 202-737-7914



Please note change of address effective 6/26/06:



Be an angel of change. You can change the lives of people living with
disabilities. Earn your wings at http://www.easterseals.com
<http://www.easterseals.com/> ..

From: Jim Tobias
Date: Tue, Jan 09 2007 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

This is a great idea, Jennifer, and deserves to be promulgated as a Best
Practice itself!

For convenience, here is the right page on the wiki:
http://teitac.org/wiki/Documentation:Topic_List


******
Jim Tobias
Inclusive Technologies
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
+1 732.441.0831 voice/tty
skype jimtobias
+1 908.907.2387 mobile




_____

From: Jennifer Dexter [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 10:27 AM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [teitac-documentation] Topic for Discussion



Hello everyone. In an effort to keep us all moving towards our final goal
of beginning to answer all of the questions we have raised, the co-chairs
have decided that we will be posting on issue from the issue list on the
Wiki every day. Please respond to the listserv with your answers and they
will be compiled on the Wiki issues page. If you want to see the model, the
issue page now includes some responses to the questions from Jim Tobias.



Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step of a
process listed in the documentation?



Jennifer Dexter

Assistant Vice President, Government Relations

Easter Seals

1425 K Street, N.W.

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20005

202-347-3066

Fax: 202-737-7914



Please note change of address effective 6/26/06:



Be an angel of change. You can change the lives of people living with
disabilities. Earn your wings at http://www.easterseals.com
<http://www.easterseals.com/> ..

From: terri@accessible-systems.com
Date: Tue, Jan 09 2007 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

The rule of thumb I use when creating documentation is to
include keyboard instructions for any actions that do not
follow standard industry OS navigation methodologies. For
example: If the documentation says, "click on the open icon
or select open from the file menu." This is sufficient as
long as the file menu keyboard short cut follows the
standard shortcut key of "F". If for some reason the
shortcut key were, (very problematically - in my view -
SMILE), "l" instead of "f" you would need to include this
in the documentation. "Click on the open icon or select
the file menu (Alt +l) then select "open".

I think it would clutter the documentation to have keyboard
short-cuts for EVERY step in the process. There must be at
least some basic keyboard navigation knowledge assumed by
the author.

Terri Youngblood


On Tue, 9 Jan 2007 09:26:39 -0600
"Jennifer Dexter" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hello everyone. In an effort to keep us all moving
> towards our final
> goal of beginning to answer all of the questions we have
> raised, the
> co-chairs have decided that we will be posting on issue
> from the issue
> list on the Wiki every day. Please respond to the
> listserv with your
> answers and they will be compiled on the Wiki issues
> page. If you want
> to see the model, the issue page now includes some
> responses to the
> questions from Jim Tobias.
>
>
>
> Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on
> every step of
> a process listed in the documentation?
>
>
>
> Jennifer Dexter
>
> Assistant Vice President, Government Relations
>
> Easter Seals
>
> 1425 K Street, N.W.
>
> Suite 200
>
> Washington, DC 20005
>
> 202-347-3066
>
> Fax: 202-737-7914
>
>
>
> Please note change of address effective 6/26/06:
>
>
>
> Be an angel of change. You can change the lives of people
> living with
> disabilities. Earn your wings at
> http://www.easterseals.com
> <http://www.easterseals.com/> ..
>
>
>

From: Lybarger, Barbara (MOD)
Date: Tue, Jan 09 2007 1:05 PM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

As an employer who routinely supports three individuals who use vision
related AT, and over the years who has supported lots more. I would
prefer the documentation include all the keyboard commands required in
the technical standards sections. I have three reasons.

First, employees come in at all kinds of skill levels, and having the
equivalent keyboard commands right in the documentation puts people with
disabilities on the same level with every other new user.

Second, where documentation includes basic level instructions for
non-disabled users, one can and should assume the owner of the software
thought that level of documentation was necessary and appropriate. If
it's necessary and appropriate for non-disabled used, equivalent
keyboard commands should also be there for disabled users.

Third, all the commands are needed because employees with disabilities
are more often than not part of a team. The technical support folks,
co-workers and supervisors of disabled workers need to be able to
provide technical support for folks with disabilities that is meaningful
for the team to work effectively. That falls apart when one gets stuck
on a command that might be basic for an experienced AT user but isn't
for the user at hand, and the rest of the support team for that position
doesn't use AT and therefore hasn't a clue what the command is and has
no readily available place to look it up.

Finally, some might suggest that an appendix with a keyboard command
list is a viable alternative to including the commands right in the
step-by-step instructions. I've tried to do that and found that it is
very cumbersome and confusing because the technical name for commands
often has nothing to do with what the command does, and for some reason
those who write these appendices often list the information
alphabetically by the key strokes used, rather than the function one is
attempting to execute.

_____

From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of
Jennifer Dexter
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 10:27 AM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [teitac-documentation] Topic for Discussion



Hello everyone. In an effort to keep us all moving towards our final
goal of beginning to answer all of the questions we have raised, the
co-chairs have decided that we will be posting on issue from the issue
list on the Wiki every day. Please respond to the listserv with your
answers and they will be compiled on the Wiki issues page. If you want
to see the model, the issue page now includes some responses to the
questions from Jim Tobias.



Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step of
a process listed in the documentation?



Jennifer Dexter

Assistant Vice President, Government Relations

Easter Seals

1425 K Street, N.W.

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20005

202-347-3066

Fax: 202-737-7914



Please note change of address effective 6/26/06:



Be an angel of change. You can change the lives of people living with
disabilities. Earn your wings at http://www.easterseals.com
<http://www.easterseals.com/> ..

From: Salaets, Ken
Date: Tue, Jan 09 2007 2:05 PM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

>> Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step
of a process listed in the documentation?

Let me ask a corollary question. What have government agencies and
federal employees been doing to date to work with products and
documentation that do not have or include keyboard short cuts?

Thanks,

Ken
I T I

From: Debbie Cook
Date: Tue, Jan 09 2007 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

It's a documentation issue because it deals with how they're described, not
whether they exist.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Salaets, Ken" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "TEITAC documentation and technical support subcommittee"
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: [teitac-documentation] Topic for Discussion


Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step of
a process listed in the documentation?

I apologize for back to back questions, but should this be handed over
to the web-software subcommittee for consideration, since it really is a
software programming issue? Sorry for not asking this sooner in the
process.

Thanks,

Ken
I T I

From: Salaets, Ken
Date: Tue, Jan 09 2007 2:20 PM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step of
a process listed in the documentation?

I apologize for back to back questions, but should this be handed over
to the web-software subcommittee for consideration, since it really is a
software programming issue? Sorry for not asking this sooner in the
process.

Thanks,

Ken
I T I

From: Fratkin, Mike
Date: Wed, Jan 10 2007 6:00 AM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

The more basic issue that we have in the government to date is the fact
that most documentation that we receive is not in an accessible format.
Once we get past that, it is often difficult to know where to look for
keyboard short cuts. Sometimes vendors will say that it is in the
standard user guides and sometimes it is in the "accessible"
documentation.

It is important to be required on every step but also to provide a list
of keyboard short cuts. When I test, I try to use the standard
keystrokes to navigate but when I cannot do something, I like to look
for the list of keyboard short cuts. The hunt then starts. Is it in
the online help, separate documentation, accessible documentation or a
call to the vendor?

Mike Fratkin
SSA

[Ken wrote:]

>> Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step
of a process listed in the documentation?

Let me ask a corollary question. What have government agencies and
federal employees been doing to date to work with products and
documentation that do not have or include keyboard short cuts?

Thanks,

Ken
I T I

From: Lybarger, Barbara (MOD)
Date: Wed, Jan 10 2007 7:15 AM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

We can ask them (or their co-chairs), but that doesn't seem necessary to
me. We discussed in an earlier meeting, and this group asked the
question of the Web and Software Group after I raised this topic
originally. I also had a lengthy discussion about this very question
with Peter Korn, a member of the Web & Software Group. Peter's answer
was that it is not a programming question because it's not about what
the program does. Instead, it is about the description in words of what
the program does and how to operate it, i.e. the content of the
documentation. As this question is about the level of detail that
should be required in the content of the documentation, Peter said he
believed it belongs with documentation.

I've cc'd Peter, just in case I might have misinterpreted the
conversation in any way.


-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of
Salaets, Ken
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 3:56 PM
To: TEITAC documentation and technical support subcommittee
Subject: Re: [teitac-documentation] Topic for Discussion

Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step of
a process listed in the documentation?

I apologize for back to back questions, but should this be handed over
to the web-software subcommittee for consideration, since it really is a
software programming issue? Sorry for not asking this sooner in the
process.

Thanks,

Ken
I T I

From: David Poehlman
Date: Sat, Jan 20 2007 8:30 AM
Subject: Re: Topic for Discussion

Whether keyboard comands should be listed where they occur in line
depends on the media for delivery. I do think that a well written
list is in order but in hardcopy, keyboard comands are almost always
fairly useless. On the otherhand, I could create an interactive
document which would allow one to actually activate the comand via
link as well as via the keyboard command where appropriate.

Although it is ot within the scope of the standards, having the
keyboard commands is also important for users who for reasons other
than disability will want to use the keyboard or equivelant interface.

On Jan 9, 2007, at 10:26 AM, Jennifer Dexter wrote:

Hello everyone. In an effort to keep us all moving towards our final
goal of beginning to answer all of the questions we have raised, the
co-chairs have decided that we will be posting on issue from the issue
list on the Wiki every day. Please respond to the listserv with your
answers and they will be compiled on the Wiki issues page. If you want
to see the model, the issue page now includes some responses to the
questions from Jim Tobias.



Today's issue: Should keyboard short cuts be required on every step of
a process listed in the documentation?



Jennifer Dexter

Assistant Vice President, Government Relations

Easter Seals

1425 K Street, N.W.

Suite 200

Washington, DC 20005

202-347-3066

Fax: 202-737-7914



Please note change of address effective 6/26/06:



Be an angel of change. You can change the lives of people living with
disabilities. Earn your wings at http://www.easterseals.com
<http://www.easterseals.com/> ..