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RE: Help with adding ACCESSKEY statements?

for

From: John Foliot - WATS.ca
Date: Feb 20, 2004 9:39AM

Hey all,

For regular readers of this list, sorry to sound like a broken record...

For others (and BTW, welcome to new readers), we at WATS.ca have done our
own research and testing regarding accesskeys and now advise people not to
use them. We were instrumental in convincing the Canadian Government to
reverse their use of Accesskeys due to potential conflicts. Rather than
re-parrot all of the facts here, interested parties are invited to read our
articles on our site:

Using Accesskeys - Is it worth it? - http://wats.ca/articles/accesskeys/19
More reasons why we don't use accesskeys -
http://wats.ca/articles/accesskeyconflicts/37
Accesskeys and Reserved Keystroke Combinations -
http://wats.ca/resources/accesskeysandkeystrokes/38
Link Relationships as an Alternative to Accesskeys -
http://wats.ca/articles/accesskeyalternatives/52

The bottom line for us is that due to a) non-standardization, b) real
possibilities of user agent conflicts, and c) effort vs. gain considerations
that Accesskeys be abandoned. However, in every forum in which we
participate, and in our own resources/articles that we post, we are also
very careful to state clearly that:

1. We like the idea behind accesskeys,
2. We find the implementation very problematic
3. We believe that we collectively need to examine the issue and determine
if we need to develop other solutions that better suit the needs of
everyone.


Dave Shea at mezzoblue (and the driving force behind the Zen CSS Garden)
also makes some good points in favor of *NOT* using Accesskeys in his blog
entry - "I Do Not Use Accesskeys":
http://www.mezzoblue.com/archives/2003/12/29/i_do_not_use/ (Note - there are
also some interesting comments made as "Replies").

Finally, Keith, Accesskeys can create accessibility issues with more than
just screen reading technology, although that is where the greatest "Harm"
can take place, but as Dave Shea points out, even non-handicapped users were
having issues with his site and the Accesskey implementation.

FWIW
JF
--
John Foliot <EMAIL REMOVED>
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca 1.866.932.4878 (North America)





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