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Re: Keyboard Users and What They Use

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Jan 15, 2012 7:30AM

Hi guys

Sorry, emails in the middle of the night are not a good idea, even
less so when the (insert a very dirty word) alarm in our local club
house has gone off every 15 minutes since midnight.
I meant that in my observation (of about 10 to 20 users, mostly Jaws),
people tend to stick to trying to activate links and buttons either
with enter ror space bar. Jaws allows spacebar activation of links
with IE at least.
This may be specific to screen readers, and the browsers themselves
probably do not allow this.
I always recommend trying to use enter to activate links, use space
bar to check check boxes and select radio buttons.


On 1/15/12, Steve Faulkner < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> hi Birkir,
>
>>To activate links a user may use space bar or the enter key
>
> I know that for form controls it is a common interaction pattern to
> activate a control with either the enter or space key
>
> I am not aware of any browsers that support link activation using the
> space key. Do you have any data?
>
>
> regards
>
> stevef
>
> On 15 January 2012 08:52, Birkir R. Gunnarsson
> < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Lisa
>>
>> To activate links a user may use space bar or the enter key (listen
>> for both, 13 and 32 I believe the ascii values are).
>> tab or arrow keys are used, arrow keys are popular, but there are
>> different options as well (it always strikes me as odd when a link
>> appears in tab order, but not when using arrow keys, ideally a page
>> should b coded to make both catch all links),
>> many users bring up a list of all the links on the page (jaws key f7,
>> same in nvda), , other explore by headings, a popular Jaws navigation
>> method is the "n" key, which moves focus to the first instance of a
>> different element (I find myself using it a lot,out of habit I
>> suppose).
>> If I am expecting a form I use "f" for next form field, "e" for next
>> edit field or similar.
>> Once you get to know the page you may insert custom bookmarks or look
>> for specific signs, in GMail basic interface I know to use "x" to jump
>> to first check box (next to first message) that way one key gets me
>> straight to my messages.
>> I am in favor of AccessKeys, if there is a link users are likely to
>> use frequently, but is not accessible with other elements such as
>> headings, say the "log in" link is in the middle of a list of links
>> (though it begs the question whether the page layout could not be more
>> eficient).
>> I tell people to keep the most commonly used material towards the top
>> of the page, novice users ere towards just using the arrow key to
>> navigate, and if the main content is 80 lines down, they may give up
>> before finding it.
>> Similarly, avoid overly large tables. Many users navigate tables with
>> the arrow down key, reading columngs left to right top to bottom, many
>> users are not aware of keys like shift-dot  (less than) in Jaws, that
>> jumps to the end of current element, or table navigation modes that
>> make exploring tables faster.
>>
>> There are many factors however, and we must put a certain faith in the
>> user being able to learn basic navigation features of his/her
>> assistive technology.
>>
>>
>> On 1/15/12, Rakesh < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>> Hi Lisa,
>>>
>>> On 15-01-2012 02:44, LSnider wrote:
>>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>>
>>>> For those who use keyboard only navigation, the tab key is most used
>>>> from
>>>> what I have read. Do you use arrow keys a lot? If so, when do you use
>>>> them?
>>>> I am a screen reader user so I use only keyboard. Generally I don't use
>>>> tab key. I use arrow keys espicially down arrow key (In any given web
>>>> page
>>>> I press "cntrl + home to go to the top of the page and press down arrow
>>>> to
>>>> move to various elements of the page). To activate any link or form
>>>> element i use space bar.
>>>> When you tab to a link you want to go to, for example a hidden skip to
>>>> navigation link, do you press enter or some other key? I just wanted to
>>>> confirm that this is the only way to activate this link...
>>>>
>>>> I am a mouse user, so I only play with keyboard navigation and wondered
>>>> if
>>>> I was missing some tricks of the trade!
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>>
>>>> Lisa
>>> HTH
>>> Regards
>>> Rakesh
>>>
>>>>