TIP 37

Know this about UK Government access keys

Quite simply, the key that you as an author choose to activate a navigation option could very well conflict with keys that are already assigned by the disabled user's assistive software.

Indeed, you may even conflict with Internet Explorer, and inadvertently bring up the program 'Help' menu if you assign the key 'h' to a navigational option. Many accessibility experts now advise against the use of access keys, and it is up to you to decide if they are suitable.

Accessibility101 follows the advice laid down by the W3C and the UK Government, and implements the access key functionality (UK Government Access Key Standard).

Who are we to disagree with W3C advice, even when there is a strong case to do so? Hopefully the next revisions of WCAG & XHTML clear this issue up.

However, we asked the accessibility enthusiasts at AccessifyForum what they thought of UK Government Access Keys and wether they should be implemented by website designers We asked them to poll their views and the opinions were interesting.

Should we deploy website access keys?

Yes! The W3C recommends it!  31%  [ 6 ] No! They cause too many problems!  52%  [ 10 ] Don't know!  15%  [ 3 ]

Total Votes : 19 (Vote Here)

UK Government recommendations:

'Use UK Government Accesskey Standard'

Guidelines for UK Government websites
Illustrated handbook for Web management teams

• Discuss this Article @ Accessify

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