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Bug 12709 - @accesskey: Require user agents to hide accesskeys on unfocusable elements
Summary: @accesskey: Require user agents to hide accesskeys on unfocusable elements
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LC1 HTML5 spec (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: PC All
: P3 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: contributor
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL: http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/editing#...
Whiteboard:
Keywords: a11y
Depends on:
Blocks: 12710
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Reported: 2011-05-20 02:40 UTC by Leif Halvard Silli
Modified: 2011-11-24 21:49 UTC (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:

Attachments

Description Leif Halvard Silli 2011-05-20 02:40:09 UTC 
PROPOSAL:

Let the specification state that user agents should not reveal to users accesskeys that are added to elements which are not focusable or specially focusable.

For instance, if @accesskey is added to a non-interactive element  were there isn't any @tabindex or anything else that makes the element (specially) focusable, then @accesskey is pointless and even potentially harmful/confusing to users.

JUSTIFICATION - USERS:

If an element has the @accesskey, without having any effect that at least some users can observe, then it is only confusing to users when they activate such accesskeys and nothing happens. Such experiences may also make users not trust its positive effects and thus ignored it when it works.

EVIDENCE THAT AUTHORS MAKE THIS KIND OF MISTAKE:

  In W3C's online mailinglist archives, accesskey="j" is attached to an unfocusable anchor element (without @href attribute): [*]
  
 <a name="start295" accesskey="j" id="start295"></a>
 [*] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2011Apr/0295

NOTES: This user agent requirement related bug is a little bit related to the authoring related bug 12708.
Comment 1 Leif Halvard Silli 2011-05-20 02:46:21 UTC 
(In reply to comment #0)

EVIDENCE THAT USER AGENTS CURRENTLY DO NOT HIDE 'dead' ACCESSKEYS:

* iCab can reveal access keys - and doesn't hide 'dead' accesskeys.
* Opera, when a user asks to see the access keys ( Shift-Esc - at least on a Mac), will also lists 'dead' accesskeys
Comment 2 Michael[tm] Smith 2011-08-04 05:35:11 UTC 
mass-move component to LC1
Comment 3 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2011-08-05 15:32:16 UTC 
Why isn't this entirely a UI issue?
Comment 4 Michael[tm] Smith 2011-11-20 20:35:48 UTC 
Leif, this bug is waiting for your response to comment #3:
> Why isn't this entirely a UI issue?
Comment 5 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2011-11-24 21:48:00 UTC 
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:
   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

Status: Rejected
Change Description: no spec change
Rationale: In fact, the way the spec is set up now, accesskey="" _always_ has an effect if a key is assigned: at a minimum, it fires a 'click' event. So this seems like a non-issue.