[orca-list] Firefox bindings (was Re: revisiting the issue of unbound keybindings)

[Joanmarie Diggs <joanmarie diggs gmail com>]

Hi Alex, all.

On Sat, 2010-04-24 at 20:11 -0500, Alex H. wrote:

> Lots of good points in this thread.

I agree. Thanks guys for sharing your thoughts on this matter!

Regarding this:

> I agree with Storm about Firefox, we should attach keys to the Firefox
> quick nav keys for checkboxes/edits/forms etc. People migrating from
> other screen access programs can start browsing the web without having
> to customize their keystrokes. With that said, it's easy enough to
> change a keystroke if a user doesn't like it.

I want to do two things:

1. Be sure we all agree that this should be done -- or at least all
agree that doing it is not going to hurt anything. Anyone who objects,
now is the time to speak up.

2. If we all do agree that structural navigation keys for Firefox should
all be bound by default, I'd like us to agree on the keystrokes. To make
things simpler, here's an initial list of the currently-unbound items
and proposed bindings which I'll toss out. It's mostly based on (what I
remember to be) the conventions adopted and shared by the Windows screen
readers.

Anchor - a and shift a
Button - b and shift b
Check box - x and shift x
Combo box - c and shift c
Entry - e and shift e
Radio button - r and shift r
Separator - s and shift s

Thoughts?

Also, a question for those of you whose primary language is not English:
What is typically done (and what should we do) with respect to these
bindings? In other words, if your word for 'heading' is a word that
doesn't begin with 'h', do you just get stuck with the 'h' because your
screen reader is developed by someone for whom 'heading' does start with
'h'? Or are there language-specific bindings for these sorts of things?

Thanks again for all your input!

Take care.
--joanie