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Thread: accesskeys - underlining letters
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From: Matthew Lindop
Date: Fri, May 16 2003 5:01AM
Subject: accesskeys - underlining letters
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Apologies if this is a newbie question...
I know there are already quite a few accesskey recommendations based around
different number & letter keyboard combinations.
As the general consensus is that numbers should be used for generic
shortcuts pages (ie 1=home, 0=accesskeys etc), how about using the letter
keys, and visually indicating the accesskey by underlining the appropriate
letter?
So for your homepage link you could use
<a href="home.html" accesskey="h"><span class="un">H</span>ome</a>
[where class 'un' is text-decoration: underline]
For keys already assigned by the browser's menus, use the next available
letter in the word, eg
<a href="biographies.html" accesskey="i">B<span
class="un">i</span>ographies</a>
php.net is already using this in a small way with its search accesskey:
<u>s</u>earch
When extended to the navigation bar of a site, this solution seems to
combine clarity with accessibility.
It is also a really prominent indication to all that you care about these
things (you could even have a link called 'why are some letters underlined?'
linking to your 'About this site' page).
The one downside we can think of is that screen readers will trip up over
the link text because of the span tag ("H - ome") - any suggestions?
Thanks
Matt Lindop
www.WebProjects.co.uk
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From: John Foliot - bytown internet
Date: Fri, May 16 2003 5:19AM
Subject: RE: accesskeys - underlining letters
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Mathew,
The use of Accesskeys *has* been discussed on this list many times, but
welcome to the list anyway <grin>.
There seems to be a split opinion on Accesskeys (See:
http://wats.ca/resources/accesskeys/19), however, should you use them then
yes, setting the <span> to underline the Accesskey would be a good idea. Be
careful which key you choose, and avoid excessive use of Accesskeys... after
all, most users probably will not be returning to the page on a daily
basis... expecting them to remember more than 2 or 3 Accesskeys is probably
unreasonable.
Good Luck
JF
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matthew Lindop [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
> Sent: Friday, May 16, 2003 7:54 AM
> To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Subject: accesskeys - underlining letters
>
>
>
> Apologies if this is a newbie question...
>
> I know there are already quite a few accesskey recommendations
> based around
> different number & letter keyboard combinations.
>
> As the general consensus is that numbers should be used for generic
> shortcuts pages (ie 1=home, 0=accesskeys etc), how about using the letter
> keys, and visually indicating the accesskey by underlining the appropriate
> letter?
>
> So for your homepage link you could use
>
> <a href="home.html" accesskey="h"><span class="un">H</span>ome</a>
>
> [where class 'un' is text-decoration: underline]
>
> For keys already assigned by the browser's menus, use the next available
> letter in the word, eg
>
> <a href="biographies.html" accesskey="i">B<span
> class="un">i</span>ographies</a>
>
> php.net is already using this in a small way with its search accesskey:
>
> <u>s</u>earch
>
> When extended to the navigation bar of a site, this solution seems to
> combine clarity with accessibility.
> It is also a really prominent indication to all that you care about these
> things (you could even have a link called 'why are some letters
> underlined?'
> linking to your 'About this site' page).
>
> The one downside we can think of is that screen readers will trip up over
> the link text because of the span tag ("H - ome") - any suggestions?
>
> Thanks
>
> Matt Lindop
> www.WebProjects.co.uk
>
>
>
> ----
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
>
>
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To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
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