WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Bypass Blocks for Keyboard users

for

From: deborah.kaplan
Date: Jul 17, 2015 1:29PM

There is, in general, deep-seated resistance at browser manufacturers against implementing most accessibility support as native options: access to ARIA, native implementation of MathML, even the ability to view alt without knowing how to access an individual image's properties. The convinction that this should all be exposed via assistive tech or in browser extensions is incompatible with the known fact that most people with mild AT needs will never install assistive tech or any kind of browser add-on, and will never know there's the ability to navigate a website in a manner browsers don't expose.

Deborah Kaplan

On Fri, 17 Jul 2015, Paul Bohman wrote:

> I am very much in favor of having browsers implement landmark navigation
> for keyboard-only users, but in one-on-one conversations with some of the
> people who actually write code for the browsers, there is some deep-seated
> resistance to doing that, even among accessibility advocates and blind
> programmers at these companies. I really don't get it. They're attitude is
> that it should be an add-on and not a core feature of the browser. I
> disagree completely, but nothing is going to change until we change the
> minds of the people who are creating the browsers, who currently don't like
> the idea.
>
>
> Paul Bohman, PhD
> Director of Training, Deque Systems, Inc
> https://DequeUniversity.com
> 703-225-0380, ext.121