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Re: Tools used by sighted keyboard users - or, are skiplinks still required even when using ARIA landmarks?

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From: deborah.kaplan@suberic.net
Date: Aug 14, 2012 4:55PM

> I figure that keyboard users in general breaks down into two groups; those who can use a mouse but who use the keyboard as a preference - typically power users - and those who cannot use a mouse, and who are therefore dependent on the keyboard alone.

Speech users are also mostly de facto keyboard users; controlling the mouse with speech recognition is possibly but very slow and difficult. It's much faster to emulate keystrokes.

There are a variety of tools for sighted keyboard users.

* Speech recognition, of course (eg NaturallySpeaking, Dragon Dictate, WSR).

* Tools that add keystroke identifiers to actionable elements on a web page (eg the Firefox add-on Mouseless Browsing).

* Browser built-ins allowing navigation by header (only in Opera, I think, and not very fine-tunable).

* Browser built-ins for direct search in page (eg F3, Ctrl-F, and "/", which sometimes is overriden by well-meaning and misguided page designers).

> It's usually assumed that a blind user must be using a screenreader (or equivalent technology, such as a self-voicing browser); can anything similar be said regarding keyboard-only users?

I've never seen statistics, but I'd feel sorry for anyone who browsed mouselessly without knowing their browsers shortcuts or having an assistance icon. As a speech/keyboard user (and a power user both) I don't see how you could really be a successful Internet user without a mouse unless you have some expertise. (You can see why if you ask an able-bodied accessibility tester to unplug their mouse and navigate the web; it takes knowledge to even learn how.)

> sighted keyboard users instead have to tab-tab-tab.

That being said, with this use case I suspect a survey would should that most keyboard users *don't* know how to quickly skip around the page.

-Deborah
--
Deborah Kaplan
Accessibility Team Co-lead
Dreamwidth Studios, LLC