[orca-list] Let's decide on live region re-bindings and move on :-)

[Joanmarie Diggs <joanmarie diggs gmail com>]

Hey all.

So we've got one little, lonely unbound structural navigation object
left: radio buttons. Let's give this guy a home and move on. :-)

To recap: From the previous discussions, it's clear to me that we all
agree that the new radio button bindings should be r and shift r. The
thing standing in our way is the fact that r and shift r are currently
bound to next and previous live region. From those same discussions, it
is pretty clear that we all agree that it is worth snatching r and shift
r away from live region. Thus the only thing that remains to be
determined is what the new bindings for next and previous live region
shall be. Here are the candidates:

1. d and shift d
2. g and shift g
3. n and shift n
4. y and shift y
5. unbound

Here are my opinions on each, for what they are worth. (In other words,
I'm just another voter.):

1. d and shift d: I vote for this one, mainly because it doesn't suffer
from the problems I see with the rest. :-)

2. g and shift g: Orca currently does not have structural navigation by
graphic/image. But some other screen readers do, and this is the binding
those screen readers associate with it. What if, at some point down the
road, we decide that we too should have navigation by graphic? We'll all
be back here voting on what the next and previous live region shall be
re-bound to. Talk about dÃjà vu all over again.... <smile>

3. n and shift n: I believe that this is the JAWS command to skip to the
next/previous non-link which contains at least 25 characters in it. Orca
doesn't have such a command. Instead we have large object navigation (o
and shift o). So I we are less likely have the aforementioned
down-the-road potential for rebinding redux like we might with
graphics/images. However, one of the primary goals behind adding these
bindings in the first place, was to make it easier for new Orca users
coming to us from other screen readers such as JAWS. If such a user, out
of sheer habit, presses n or shift n to skip over some links, I think it
would be better if nothing happened. If instead there happens to be a
live region on the page and the user is moved to it, I think that would
be confusing/disorienting.

4. y and shift y: This option would require that we first change the
binding for the command which moves to the last live region presented.
I'd be fine with that if there were a compelling reason to make y and
shift y the new bindings for next and previous live region. But I don't
think such a reason exists. So why rebind something else?

5. unbound: To be honest, I don't know how many live regions there are
out in the wild. If there are a bunch of live regions out there, then I
think we'd want to have existing bindings for them because from the
new-user perspective, it's easier to discover what a binding is than to
bind it. If no one is using live regions, then we could unbind them
without much impact.

So there you have it.... What would be awesome is if each of you could
cast your vote for the replacement for next and previous live region. I
plan to do the 2.31.1 tarball sometime on Sunday and would like to have
the structural navigation binding issue completed for that release.

Thanks (again and again and again) for all your input!
--joanie