making fallback access keys configurable

[Willie Walker]

I'm not sure I understand the overall goals here, but as one of the
original authors of the AccessX functionality, I'd like to offer the
suggestion that things such as this should be passed by the domain
experts (e.g., occupational therapists and actual users of the
technology) before being decided.

For example, things like the shift key were chosen because of their
size and location on the keyboard (and later became useful because
of their global availability across multiple styles of keyboards,
including laptops).

As for who can provide this domain expertise, I'd suggest Mark
Novak, who is another author of the AccessX functionality and one who
is well in-tune with the OT side of things.  The end conclusion might
be the same, but at least we will be comforted that the decision
was made with the blessing of the domain experts.

Will


On Mar 3, 2006, at 6:04 AM, Gunnar Schmi Dt wrote:

> Hello Bill,
>
> On Friday 03 March 2006 11:43, Bill Haneman wrote:
>> Hi Olaf/All:
>>
>> Having worked on keyboard navigation issues for Gnome, mozilla,  
>> etc. for
>> the past 5 years, I agree with your points, except for the suggestion
>> about F8.  Using function keys as modifiers is a very bad idea,  
>> and poor
>> from an accessibility standpoint.  A 'standard' modifier should be  
>> used,
>> consistent with the rest of the desktop.
>> [...]
>
> To my knowledge are talking about a keyboard shortcut for turning  
> on the
> access keys. Once they are turned on, you see the a number of tooltips
> which describe the keys you need to press in order to use one of the
> access keys.
>
> In other words,  for activating the access key "a" you have to:
> 1. Press and release "Control" (possibly multiple times if sticky  
> keys is
> enabled). After that, the tooltips are visible.
> 2. Type "a". The access key is activated and the tooltips disappear.
>
> If we switch to some other shortcut (let us say F8) you have to:
> 1. Type F8. After that, the tooltips are visible.
> 2. Type "a". The access key is activated and the tooltips disappear.
>
> Can you please explain why you would prefer to use a modifier key?
>
> Gunnar Schmi Dt
> -- 
> Member of KDE's Technical Working Group
> Co-maintainer of the KDE Accessibility Project
> Maintainer of the kdeaccessibility package
> http://accessibility.kde.org/
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