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Re: accesskey

for

From: Denis Boudreau
Date: Nov 5, 2010 7:30AM


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
>