Firefox 2.0: The Right Change In The Wrong Way
Firefox 2.0 introduces some changes in its default keyboard mapping compared to previous versions. Specifically, where keyboard navigators might have previously used:
ALT + A.N.Other Key
to activate a site facility that had an accesskey assigned to it, they’ll now have to use:
ALT + Shift + A.N.Other Key
Now, I’m not a fan of accesskeys on sites generally - unless they can be assigned by each user. I’m an intermittent keyboard navigator due to joint problems and I very rarely, if ever, use accesskeys on a site. It’s too difficult and time-consuming to try and learn the shortcuts on each individual site, so I just stick to the TAB key or navigate via VR software (which amounts to the same thing). My own research amongst other keyboard navigators suggests that my experience isn’t unusual. Or, as one user put it:
“I’d use web site shortcuts if they were all the same on every site but, until that happens, I’ll continue to ignore them”
I can also understand why the Firefox developers have chosen to move away from using the ALT key. It’s fairly well known that some accesskey assignments can interfere with normal browser functionality and users of previous versions of Firefox have suffered as a result.
But I’m not convinced that replacing it with ALT + Shift as the default option was such a good idea.
This means that two key press operation has now been extended into a three key press operation. Not terribly helpful if your aim is to try and support people who have mobility problems. And it’s certainly not good if you want to avoid RSI! All advice on the subject stresses that multiple key presses should be kept to a minimum and that ’spanning’ the keyboard with one hand should be avoided at all costs.
If you happen to navigate around the web using Dragon with Firefox, your already difficult job may just have become a little bit harder.
Personally, I would also have preferred Firefox to have held this change back until they’d developed a simple GUI interface for editing key bindings with appropriate documentation. Then all users could personalise their shortcut keys easily. Diving into the config via a command line interface is not for the faint hearted as the following documents indicate:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Ui.key.generalAccessKey
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Ui.key.chromeAccess
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Ui.key.contentAccess
I particularly liked the instructions for configuring a generalAccessKey other than CTRL or ALT:
(Other)
All possible values are defined in nsIDOMKeyEvent.idl, though they are listed there in hex (base 16) - you will need to convert the values to decimal (base 10).
Poor Joe Public is really going to understand that!
However, I suspect that the decision to make the change now was a combination of knee jerk reaction to criticism regarding key conflicts in previous versions of Firefox combined with a hint of political one-upmanship in the Firefox 2 versus Internet Explorer 7 battle. Either way, the change is ill-considered and, in my opinion, scrappy.
Unfortunately, it will be the confused Firefox users who will lose out.
[...] At one point, it was suggested that using a standard set of numberic keys might be useful and this was, indeed, mandated on UK government sites. However, since the release of Firefox 2.0, there are now significant problems with using this approach as outlined in Gez Lemon’s article Firefox 2.0 and Access Keys. I’ve also made my own feelings fairly plain on the new Firefox implementation of access keys. But, the fact is that, for now, we’re stuck with the current situation and need to bear it in mind when considering the practicalities of implementing accesskeys on a site. [...]