[Sigia-l] Keyboard shortcuts for web based interfaces

[jon at spin.ie]

> Has anybody ever done any work on creating shortcuts for web based
> interfaces?
> 
> I am interested in following -
> - pointers which could tell me 'standards', ‘dos/do-nots’, and anything
> related to ‘accessibility’ aspect.
> - user requirements/ case studies where shortcuts were implemented to help
> the user.
> - Opinions as per their usability
> 
> You can send me the mail directly (or throw in here for debate) and I will
> summarize it at the end.

The web accessibility community has grown increasingly disillusioned with accesskey. There is neither any good way of ensuring you don't clash with shortcuts used by the browser itself, nor for indicating which keys do what on the page.
Shortcuts become increasingly useful as experience with an application grows, this isn't applicable to many web applications where users may be "causual" rather than using the same application every day, and the application itself may be relatively mutable as updates are controlled by the administrators, rather than the user.

Since numbers are not much used by browsers for shortcuts they are safer than letters.