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Accesskeys (was RE: Help on approach for annotating images)

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From: John Foliot - WATS.ca
Date: Dec 5, 2005 7:00AM

Malcolm Wotton wrote:
>
> Can you point to a reference or survey for this? or is it a point of
> view? I could remove all access key features but I really want to
> know it's going to be an improvement.

No Malcolm, there are very real problems, and if you can remove them,
please by all means do so:

Using Accesskeys - Is it worth it?:
http://www.wats.ca/articles/accesskeys/19

More reasons why we don't use accesskeys:
http://www.wats.ca/articles/accesskeyconflicts/37

Accesskeys and Reserved Keystroke Combinations:
http://www.wats.ca/resources/accesskeysandkeystrokes/38

Link Relationships as an Alternative to Accesskeys:
http://www.wats.ca/articles/accesskeyalternatives/52

The Future of Accesskeys:
http://www.wats.ca/articles/thefutureofaccesskeys/66

The XHTML Role Access Module still flawed:
http://www.wats.ca/articles/xhtmlroleaccessmodulestillflawed/80

Please note: there are voices out there who will argue for Accesskeys.
I wish to state that while the *IDEA* of providing accesskeys (or more
accurately, custom keyboard navigation) could be a real benefit to some
users, the current implementation causes the potential for so many user
issues that they out-weigh any potential benefit.

The W3C has indicated that they will be deprecating the accesskey
attribute in the next-gen XHTML 2, however, to my absolute frustration,
they seem committed to still providing the author with the ability to
bind a specific key to a "ROLE" or access-point, which I argue will
perpetuate the same problems that we see today with accesskeys. I have
detailed these concerns extensively in the final article referenced
above - "The XHTML Role Access Module still flawed"

I urge all to read this final article - I really hope that the Web
Accessibility community will speak up and let the W3C know that the
*need* for specific key-binding does not exist, it is imagined, and that
specific key-binding will continue to cause problems.

JF
--
John Foliot <EMAIL REMOVED>
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca
Phone: 1-613-482-7053