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Re: Alt key to reveal keyboard shortcuts?

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From: Jeremy Echols
Date: Jul 13, 2017 1:48PM

Alt typically reveals the browser's menu. I'm not even sure if you can capture an alt key by itself.

A common pattern I've seen is the "?" key showing an overlay of keyboard shortcuts, and "ESC" hides it. This is how gmail does it.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of R Sengers
Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2017 12:44 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Alt key to reveal keyboard shortcuts?

We want to implement keyboard shortcuts on a web app for users who are using keyboard instead of mouse to move around to different parts of the page. We'd like to let users know what keyboard shortcuts are available on the page.

We're considering doing this: when user hits ALT key, the web page reveals all the keyboard shortcuts that are available on the page. When user releases the ALT key, they disappear.

Do you foresee any issues with this plan? Do you know if the Alt key (by itself) already in use for other purposes by any common browsers, OS's, or assistive technologies?

Thanks!
Rachel Sengers