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Re: Keyboard accessibility of abbreviations

for

From: Jim Allan
Date: Apr 16, 2015 9:25AM

I would also file a bug on all of the browsers. keyboard access to
abbreviations and such should be a browser function. There should not be a
need for thousands of authors to code some stuff that should be a function
of the browser.
Jim

On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 5:29 AM, < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi List,
>
> I'm currently trying to improve the keyboard accessibility of our website
> and recently decided to tackle abbreviations. According to the German
> accessibility regulations (and I'm sure there are equivalent success
> criteria in the WCAG) all functionality must be accessible by keyboard,
> and the expanded form of all abbreviations must be accessible to all users.
>
> To achieve this, we set up this javascript solution:
> https://jsfiddle.net/saenas/un40y5ey/
>
> But while it should fulfill the SC, we're not sure how good it is from a
> usability viewpoint. Since we provide medical information, there are a lot
> of abbreviations on our website, and implementing this solution (or any
> like it, really) forces keyboard users to tab a lot more. Additionally,
> while it is supposed to only expand the first instance of each abbreviation
> per page, this mechanism doesn't work for the navigation and the sidebar -
> so an abbreviation that is present in each element would be expanded three
> times.
> For reference, here is a link to one of our pages that contains LOTS of
> abbreviations: http://www.dimdi.de/static/de/klassi/index.htm
>
> That's why I'd like to ask keyboard users here: what do you think of such
> a solution? Do you think it would improve your experience or make it worse?
> Does anyone have suggestions for improvement?
>
> Thank you for your feedback!
> > > > >



--
[image: http://www.tsbvi.edu] <http://www.tsbvi.edu>;Jim Allan,
Accessibility Coordinator & Webmaster
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315 fax: 512.206.9264 http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964