At 11:54 PM 12/6/2004 +0000, you wrote:
Veine K Vikberg wrote:
Well, my link was given for XHTML Strict, in where my solution is the only way to both make sure it is to the greatest extent accessible as well as validating the code.
Let me explain a little more;
You missed my point completely: keep the onclick, but ditch the onkeypress, as it otherwise means users can't tab past your link. Onclick is triggered by the keyboard as well, so there's no need for a matching onkeypress.
I know that keyboard users with Mozilla will get stuck at the link, I did not miss that point, and I think that is an issue that Mozilla needs to address shortly, since it's non compliant behavior.
I am following W3C guidelines for XHTML validation, and I follow WAI Content Accessibility Guidelines 1999/05/05, Support Level: AAA ( http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ )
For the XHTML there is no need to put in redundant code, the code will validate with either the onclick or the onkeypress, or both used redundantly as my example was, and if the goal was only XHTML compliance I would agree with you to 100% on the issue of not using onkeypress for the reason above.
However, the WAI is not as forgiving and this is a device-dependent attribute, where redundant input methods are required for the same element. There are five instances where WAI gives us no choice but to use redundancy:
onclick with onkeypress onmouseup with onkeyup onmousedown with onkeydown onmouseover with onfocus onmouseout with onblur
These event handlers responds to what the user does, weather it is key press, mouse clicks, voice activated etc. Most of these event handlers are only for eye candy, or to get a users attention, but onclick/onkeypress is a part of the functionality of the page and must be presented device independent to achieve even AA WAI standards.
This is the reference to WAI standards for the above;
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/#tech-device-independent-events
These are the guidelines I follow, and I have the hopes that the browser market would start to adhere to (or at least attempt to) the standards, I know .. I know... it's Utopia, but what can one do?
Regards
~Veine
Veine K Vikberg http://www.vikberg.net Professional Web Guru
