Accesskeys Needs Standards
Published: Jun 20, 2007A lack of standards have caused low awareness and take-up of accesskeys, the alternative form of web navigation, according to a report published this month.
Accesskeys are used by people unable to use a mouse or those who want to increase efficiency in navigating common links in Web sites.
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“There is a present lack of standardization, for both how to assign accesskeys and how they should be represented. Consequently awareness of accesskeys is limited,” Pete Ward, author of the paper told E-Access Bulletin. “The lack of standardization or guidelines for how they should be implemented decreases the benefits which accesskeys provide,” Ward said.
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Ward also found there are potential clashes between built-in shortcuts, for both browsers and user agents, and keys selected to be accesskeys. “The number of available keys which may be assigned as an accesskey without causing a clash is very low,” Ward said.
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“Many Web authors, on account of the difficulties associated with implementing them, will choose not to utilize them. Standardization or guidelines will encourage Web developers to use accesskeys.” Ward, who also tested a proposed standard with intended accesskeys users wrote the paper for his masters degree project at University College London, with support from consultancy The Usability Company.
Taken from e-access bulletin, a free monthly email newsletter.
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