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Re: keyboard accessibility (WCAG) vs keyboard shortcuts?

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From: Joy Relton
Date: Apr 19, 2016 3:20PM

The first example of a "keyboard shortcut" that I can think of, is when I was auditing a web-based application which had various grids on the page between which the user needed to move. Since the labeling and keyboard navigation was difficult the developer devised shortcut keys which would bring the user to each of the control locations. For example, Alt+l would take the user to the close button. Developing Shortcut keys opens up a big can of worms because you have to avoid conflicts with known shortcut keys for operating systems and assistive technology. If the legacy app simply isn't going to allow the user to tab through the page, creating shortcut keys does provide keyboard access. I am fairly certain this is what they are talking about. For example, many applications often have shortcut keys to allow quick navigation, hence the word "shortcut" to various functions.