Re: FN-FORUM: accessibility issues... (accesskey mainly)

date posted 7th August 2004 13:18

On 6 Aug 2004, at 21:28, sparkes wrote:

> I would love to see a scheme like this adopted more widely cos I
> wouldn't have to keep thinking about what keys to use and how to tell
> users the ones I am using.
>
> perhaps a future project is coming up with a consistant access key
> scheme that would cover a large chunk of web sites out there. anyone
> aware of a scheme to do this?

it's definitely part of the bigger picture. the method i'm going to
start adopting is using the first letter of each link, and if the first
letter is taken move onto the next (i'm talking about just major
navigation here) and not use accesskey in large link lists, like a
news archive, and use a tabindex method instead. i had a play with
tabindex on my page today and it works well.

maybe even a button to serve up an alternative stylesheet to show all
the accesskey hints (underlined letters).

underlined letters for hot keys is something that goes back to the
inception of UI's - so i would have thought that's as standard as
anything?

text only browsers can show the accesskey after the link by use of a
hidden tag, that appears when CSS is off - and i'll also put
hints for the accesskeys in the tooltips - although if someone has to
roll over the link to find out accesskey, it rather negates the use of
them somewhat!

i think that is the only clear way forward for me. i can see how a
standardized list should work for common site areas - but somehow
having an underlined letter in the link hinting at the accesskey seems
a more intuitive way of doing things...

all i need to do now is convince my clients to accept having one letter
in their nav links underlined! but i guess having the alternative
'accessible' stylesheet option would fix that...

here is my solution for anyone who's interested:
www.evoke-media.com/sites/had/index.html

is there an icon that could be used to direct people to accessible
versions of sites ? (via a style switch or text only version)

i hate that disabled icon - the person in a wheelchair. a lot of
people who require accessibility *aren't* hugely disabled! not like
that, anyhow...

luke

---
Evoke Media Ltd.
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