I want to make my website properly accessible. I want to assign keys
that navigate to a different page when pressed.

I've looked into the accesskey attribute, but under IE that involves
pressing the ALT key with the accelerator, and then pressing return.

Is there a way that you can define an access key to just follow a link,
without pressing ALT and without having to press RETURN?

jameshamilton777@hotmail.com wrote:
[color=blue]
> I want to make my website properly accessible. I want to assign keys
> that navigate to a different page when pressed.[/color]


These usually cause problems. You ought to at least be aware of that. There
are collision in key sequences that cause signals to be devoured or
overridden.

[color=blue]
> I've looked into the accesskey attribute, but under IE that involves
> pressing the ALT key with the accelerator, and then pressing return.[/color]


Yes, in NS-based browsers it's just ALT+key which would raise plenty of
conflicts. I think that in Mac's IE5 and Safari it's the the Apple key+key
so conflicts should be expected as well.

[color=blue]
> Is there a way that you can define an access key to just follow a link,
> without pressing ALT and without having to press RETURN?[/color]

I hope you are not very serious about this. It is not possible unless you
use JavaScript and it would be a bad idea nonetheless. For example, when I
press a key (any character), a search on the page is performed which
highlights the text (it's an accessibility feature). If you implemeted what
you have in mind, you would antagonise your visitors. You need to have a
very valid reason to do so.

Roy

--
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com

"Roy Schestowitz" wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
>> I've looked into the accesskey attribute, but under IE that involves
>> pressing the ALT key with the accelerator, and then pressing return.[/color]
>
>
> Yes, in NS-based browsers it's just ALT+key which would raise plenty of
> conflicts. I think that in Mac's IE5 and Safari it's the the Apple key+key
> so conflicts should be expected as well.[/color]

Actually in most (all?) Mac browsers the control key is used for access
keys, so there's much less chance of it interfering with other keyboard
shortcuts (which normally use the command key).

--
phil [dot] ronan @ virgin [dot] net
http://vzone.virgin.net/phil.ronan/

On Tue, 16 Aug 2005, jameshamilton777@hotmail.com wrote:
[color=blue]
> I want to make my website properly accessible. I want to assign keys
> that navigate to a different page when pressed.[/color]

Unfortunately, this isn't as straightforward as it seems.

Defining accesskeys in your markup is a clearly defined procedure, but
many browser implementations are inadequate - in the sense that the
accesskeys will clash with other uses of the same key combinations in
the browser and/or user interface.
[color=blue]
> I've looked into the accesskey attribute, but under IE that involves
> pressing the ALT key with the accelerator, and then pressing return.[/color]

It's not only IE that's a problem in this context...
[color=blue]
> Is there a way that you can define an access key to just follow a link,
> without pressing ALT and without having to press RETURN?[/color]

That's really not under your control as a web author: the browser
belongs to the user - they can and should be expected to know how to
use their own browser interface, to the extent that they want to use
it, and interfering with that user interface (even if you can) is
rated to only make things even more confusing for them.

If you were a browser designer, rather than a web author, you could
expect a very different answer!

If accesskey implementation in browsers is known to be quite widely
unsatisfactory (and there seems to be quite a body of opinion which
says that it is), then your only recourse as a web author seems to be
"not to use it".

best regards

jameshamilton777@hotmail.com wrote:[color=blue]
> I want to make my website properly accessible. I want to assign keys
> that navigate to a different page when pressed.
>
> I've looked into the accesskey attribute, but under IE that involves
> pressing the ALT key with the accelerator, and then pressing return.
>
> Is there a way that you can define an access key to just follow a link,
> without pressing ALT and without having to press RETURN?[/color]

The way that browsers respond to access keys in not under your control,
it depends on how the browser has been programmed.

The Mac-only browser iCab does what you want with access keys, but I
don't think any other browsers do. I have a table of how browsers
implement access keys here:

<http://www.alanwood.net/pesticides/accessibility.html#keys>

--
Alan Wood
http://www.alanwood.net (Unicode, special characters, pesticide names)

Alan Wood wrote:[color=blue]
>
> I have a table of how browsers implement access keys here:
>
> <http://www.alanwood.net/pesticides/accessibility.html#keys>[/color]

FYI, in gecko browsers, automatically following the accesskey link (or
not) is set by a pref. I disabled that feature because I got tired of
unexpectedly being sent to parts unknown of a site. It was majorly annoying.

I don't remember the exact pref, but you can find it if you type
about:config in the browser location bar and search for "accessibility".

--
Reply email address is a bottomless spam bucket.
Please reply to the group so everyone can share.

Thanks for the good advice. On reflection, what I was asking for would
have been a bad idea.