Joomla! Discussion Forums

today we released an accessibility hack for mambo and joomla which allows you to assign the acceskey and tabindex tag to a certain menu item.

the hack must be installed as a component. after installing you can assign an accesskey or a tabindex to a menu item over the menu manager

the hack can be downloaded from our site http://www.joomla-barrierefrei.de/component/option,com_docman/Itemid,54/task,cat_view/gid,18/

also the title atribute will be displayed in the source code as the same as the name of the menu item

if you have questions or something please post here our write a short message at www.joomla-barrierefrei.de...thanks timail.

Cool initiative! Let's hope it gets picked up as a standard Joomla feature.

I'm a bit curious as to why you named it a hack?

Best regards,
Zoran

maybe because it has no "component features" and integrates only small functions into mambo (joomla!) like a hack... :-)

Thanks timail, I'll check it out later this weekend when I have some spare time!!!

Why did you not give people control of the title displayed for the link?  Using the same thing as the menu item name is a bit redundant, no?  Dunno, just wondering.


Tabindex and AK are part of WCAG.  We are aiming to comply with WCAG as much as possible (we may not get to Priority 3).  THerefore, we will try and integrate tabindexes and AccessKeys.

ok we will integrated the control over the title attribute into it....i wonder myself why we don´t have done this

Hey


Accesskeys yes or no is a difficult question.

There is no consens between the different Browser producer  , which key you have to press with your specified accesskey

Internet Explorer  Alt-Taste + Accesskey + Enter,
Mozilla Alt-Taste + Accesskey without  Enter,
Opera  Shift + Esc + Accesskey (without Enter).
etc.

Apple Macintosh Ctrl-Key  (without Enter),
Opera Shift + Esc

This is very confusing. We need for this a special help text.
Normal we use the accesskeys for people with motor disability , who can not use the mouse.
Did you think it's more easy to press 2 keys in time ?

The other problem is, that most of the keys are used by different programms.

Browser/windows
used shortkeys

IE 5abdfrx
IE 6abdfsx 2467?
Netscape 6/7b e f g h i m n p s t v w
Mozillab d e f g h t v w
Opera7 a b c d f h l n p w x z 2 6 9 0
HomePageReaderc e j l o t w z 0 1

e.t.c.

So you can you can see , we don't have much left.

We have no rule , how to fix the accesskey , every webdeveloper can do it in his way.
The user have to lean for each site new, how to use these keys.
If your Navigation has a clear concept,  I think we don't need accesskeys.

The canadian goverment has killed the accesskeys out of their style- guide.
I think this is a equitable decision.

Angie

mhh...i think you are right with the opinion that it is a little bit difficult for those users to get the basic information about how to use the keys on a special website. but with a special helpsite (not only used for the acceskeys) we can provid the information quickly.

i also think, that - if possible - we should offer as many services as necessary for accessibility...

so in my opinion we should offer accesskeys as well as developing websites with a logical and clean navigation structure...if a user don´t need to use the keys fine, if he want to also fine....

with our component it is very easy to created those special features within the normal mambo (joomla!) menumanager, so why don´t use it as it is so easy that way? 

You're so right Angie, AKs are really controversial.  I have many friends who swear by them, and many more who hate them.

One issue you didn't mention is that not only "regular" programs are already using some of the keys as shortcuts (particularly Windows programs), but Jaws and other screenreaders also have their own series of keys that can impact.

Then there is the fact that there really isn't any "standard" AKs, so users can go from one site to the other and never know which keys are used.  This is where your idea of giving the user a list of what keys are used can be good.

AK aren't only used for people who have mobility problems, FWIW.  They are also used by people who are blind, as a shortcut to directly jump to where they want to go.  Dave, a blind friend in Chicago tells me that he finds it very effective when he visits a particular site every day, he can just jump to the location he wants quickly and easily.

I use the recommended AK from the UK Govt, as much as I can, as it seems one of the best ones out there, according to blind users I've spoken to.



Logical and clean navigation.  I like that

mhh...is my english that stupid 

Hi a.radke,
Interesting points. Could you point me to some resources on the web about this subject? The company I work for is always interested in accessibility and usability issues, but I had never heard about these problems with access keys before.

Regards,
Matthijs

Hey

That's a little bit difficult , because the most articles I know are in german.
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php


http://www.webstandards.org/

http://www.ericmeyeroncss.com/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/roadmap/DHTMLR ... 92305.html
http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/archi ... _wars.html
http://www.standards-schmandards.com/
alistapart.com

Angie

UK Government accesskeys standard http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/e-government/resources/handbook/html/2-4.asp

Accesskeys and Reserved Keystroke Combinations http://www.wats.ca/resources/accesskeysandkeystrokes/38

Dive Into Accessibility - Defining keyboard shortcuts http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_15_defining_keyboard_shortcuts.html

Thanks angie and daestrom.
Angie, I was specifically looking for access key problems, I think the links you provided were about accessibility in general (but useful nonetheless). I shall read the resources provided by daestrom.

BTW, I can read german too (strange, my profile information has a language item, but I can't find any way to set it)

Hi I would love to try this component but I can not speak German and can not see the download on this site. any help, yes please!

This hack is very old - Accessibility Hack v1.3 was released 2006-03-01.
(accessibility_hack_v1.3.zip attached below)
Since this hacks core files it is not likely to work with current Joomla.

If you are simply looking for menu access keys:
Extended Menu
http://extensions.joomla.org/component/ ... Itemid,35/

If your goal is an accessible web site:
a8eJoomla (formerly Accessible Joomla)
http://www.a8ejoomla.com/
http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/a8ejoomla/

Thanks kenmcd. I thought the extended menu might help but was not sure. The reviews are fairly mixed about it. Ideally I would like a site with no tables at all. Cant wait till I get time to work with Joomla 1.5 when its finished. 

You will find a new version of our Accessibility Hack for Joomla 1.0.12 within download area of my weblog. The Accessibility Hack is now integrated into RD508Hack. You only need to install this one component to get a tableless layout (core files) and all the things of an accessible menu.

Feedback is welcome.

Thanks timail - I have taken kenmcd advice and have installed extended menus which is working fine. I will try this hack when I get the chance. Ta again 

Tim,
thanks for the effort you're putting into this. What are you suggesting for an already rd508-patched Joomla 1.0.12? Is there a possibility to just overwrite some files with your newly created ones, or do I really have to uninstall the current rd508 hack and re-install it with your integrated modifications?

Thanks for the info,
greets Jan

Hi,

as RD508 Hack saves all original core files within the folder system of your Joomla installation it is possible to deinstall the "old" RD508 Hack and do a reinstallation with the "new" one...

Please backup your system for security reasons befor that process.

Hi timail,
yeah I know.. I was just wondering if I can spare me the hazzle of uninstalling and reinstalling, even if backups are created.. I thought it might be a matter of just 2-3 files that were modified by you, since I understand you're mainly dealing with mod_mainmenue... Thanks anyway, I'll go for the whole procedure then