[whatwg] Accesskey in Web Forms 2

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Mac OS X, there is no native convention for highlighting an access 
key in a label string. In particular, the Windows convention of 
underlining is not followed, and there is no alternate similar 
convention. Mac OS X does not have access keys for individual controls 
in the native UI, nor does it decorate individual characters in a label 
string for any reason.

In brief, I think any requirement to render the access key in a label 
in a special way would be inconsistent with Macintosh UI. And I do not 
think the spec should require things that are inconsistent with the UI 
of particular platforms.

On Aug 21, 2004, at 4:53 PM, Matthew Raymond wrote:

> I I don't think RENDERING of the access key should be optional. The 
> vendor may implement rendering access keys as they see fit, but the 
> user must have an immediate, obvious method of finding these keys 
> without going through a set of menus or some similar obscuring 
> nonsense. Here's the text I have for this currently:
>
> "User agents must render the value of an access key. Access keys 
> should be rendered in such a way as to emphasize its role and to 
> distinguish it from other characters (e.g., by underlining it). 
> Vendors should make every attempt to render access keys in a way that 
> is consistent with the native operating system or platform UI 
> conventions. In cases where the access key is not contained in the 
> label text, the access key may, if native conventions permit, be 
> rendered in brackets or parentheses before or after the label 
> associated with a control."