On Mon, 15 Nov 2004, Stephen Poley wrote:
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> On Mon, 15 Nov 2004 13:53:03 -0000, "Dave Henson"
> <novamedia1999@hotmail.com> wrote:
>[color=green]
> >I am checking a site for accessibility and Dreamweaver suggests
> >making sure that the menu is accessible via keyboard as well as
> >mouse[/color][/color]
An accessibility checker would likely do the same, since this is
an objective checkpoint in the WAI recommendation.
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> >(i.e device-independent).[/color][/color]
Hmmm. That's a bit of a paradox, since a keyboard action is surely no
more nor less "independent" of an actual device than is a mouse
action.
Stephen responded:
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> You've missed the point.[/color]
"You might say that; I couldn't possibly comment"(SCNR)
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> Keyboard accessibility is not about providing extra facilities; it's
> mainly about not screwing up those which the browser provides as
> standard.[/color]
Accessibility checkers are inclined to tell you to resolve this issue
by adding an "onkeydown" for every "onmousedown", and so on. Even the
W3C does this - Google suggests a look at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/wcag-curric/sam70-0.htm
The wording is quite important here:
For scripts that do more than just change the presentation of an
element, content developers should do the following:
That's saying that if the effect is frivolous enough, then there's
no need of a keyboard equivalent, despite the checkpoint. IMHO/YMMV
Indeed: often the mouse action is just an optional extra way of
achieving some result that can be achieved anyhow; and adding an
unwanted keyboard action can make it subjectively /harder/ to use the
web page.
My "take" on this is that if the mouse action is sufficiently
frivolous, and you're mandated to pass all of the objective
checkpoints, then it's better to simply take it out.
If not, then consider carefully whether the suggested resolution
really does enhance the subjective accessibility, despite this
apparent violation of a WAI objective accessibility checkpoint. (If
you're into formal assessment, then make a note on the accessibility
audit that you considered the issue and took this deliberate
decision.)
[color=blue]
> Write a simple page using just HTML (no CSS, script, whatever) and
> it will be accessible via the keyboard. Perhaps not very
> conveniently if you have a huge number of links, but it's possible.
>
> So:
> - write a very simple page with a few links, using a text editor rather
> than something like Dreamweaver;
> - learn how to navigate it with the keyboard in your favourite browser;
> - check that you can navigate your "real" pages in the same way.[/color]
I *think* you're saying approximately the same as me, just approaching
the topic from a different angle. But feel free to shout me down if
I'm misunderstanding you.
cheers
