List of Critical Needs

General
Configuration options
Keyboard controls

General

ALTERNATE FORMAT FOR INFORMATION OBJECTS

• Ability to display the alt-text of images
• Ability to display the description field of PNG graphics,
• Ability to display the alt-text of URLs in client side image maps (like LYNX),
• Ability to display text descriptions or static images instead of java applets (APPLET ALT), etc. This assumes that the user has the ability to configure what will be requested, as is the case with turning "autoload images" on/off.

TABLES

• The ability to display text information embedded in the HTML of tables (the AXES and AXIS attributes of HTML 3.0). For example, a person could query the cell for its row and column information.
• the ability to navigate via the keyboard through the cells of a table.
• The ability to render tables in alternative formats. One possibility is to use alternative HTML tags, for example those proposed by Greg Lowney (from Microsoft), or variations of the AXES and AXIS proposed in the HTML 3.0 specifications. Another possibility is to include specific table navigation techniques in the keyboard control features.

FRAMES

• The ability to use keyboard controls to navigate through/between frames. Presenting a tone or sound of some sort to cue the listener that a border of some sort has been crossed could aid in understanding page layout. This cue might also give an idea of where the current frame is in relation to the last frame. However either of these are implemented, we do not want to include too many tones and confuse the user.
• Another option is to allow users to turn frames "OFF" and thus get the NOFRAME option on framed pages.

JAVA

• The ability to turn the loading of JAVA applets on/off.
• Ability to display text descriptions or static images instead of java applets (APPLET ALT), etc. This assumes that the user has the ability to configure what will be requested, as is the case with turning "autoload images" on/off.

ORIENTATION

• Where am I? This would present the user with information to help them identify where on the page they are (ex: you are 50% through the page, or you are in the first frame, by the second title, which is 10% through the page or you are in list item 5 of a 10 item list)
• A page layout summary. For example: This page has X images, Y header one's, etc. This could also include information about the author, last date update, etc. It might be interesting to have this as a toggle so that users could navigate through pages in "Page Layout Summary" mode (this is similar to the proxy and pwWebSpeak).
• Generate a "Speed List" of what objects are available on the current page. The user would then navigate through this collapsed version of the page.

PAGE NAVIGATION

• Keyboard controls for all functions, including the ability to navigate by different size "chunks." For example: tab through the page by links, by links visited, by paragraph, by titles, etc. The "current chunk" should be easily identifiable (by drawing a box around it, reverse video, or ???) [see also KEYBOARD CONTROLS section below]
• The ability to set bookmarks in the text of a page or to annotate a page. This includes the ability to easily sort bookmarks by date and alpha order.

FEEDBACK

• Provide feedback for all user's actions (both visually and auditorally). For example, after the user requests a new page to download it will activate the "phone ringing" metaphor so that the user is kept informed (both visually and audibly) off the progress of the download. Downloading has several sub-processes that users need to be aware of - looking for the host, trying to connect to the host, connected, looking for page, found page, downloading, and finished downloading.
• Icons (both auditory and visual) should use the same underlying analogy so that "the increased redundancy of the interface can help users to learn and remember the system (Gaver, 1992)." By involving a number of senses, the interface becomes more vivid. Sounds are also selected that will maximize the perception of the information. Uses the liguistic analogy of Ballas (1992), sounds can be categorized as exclamations, deixis, metaphors or onomatopoeia.
• The ability to change the font, color, and size of buttons and menus. User preferences should be honored by style sheets and JAVA applets. In the case of applets accessing preferences, perhaps a special cookie should be created that applets can access that will hold only the user preferences related to layout.

Configuration Options

• Load graphic - on/off
If this is off, the alternates for images and imagemaps will be loaded..
• Enable Animation and Applets - on/off
If this is off, the alternates for applets etc. will be loaded. This should make use of the ALT tags of objects (and the OBJECT tag if supported) by requesting alternates based on preferences.
• Frames - on/off
if off show the noframe URL instead
• Auditory events- on/off
• Showsounds - on/off
• High Contrast on/off (toolbar/buttons and text)
• text is presented in sans serif
• background is white
• normal text is black, visited links are purple, not visited links are blue
• use thick strokes (make it bold?)
• Magnify - 100%, 150%, 200% (toolbar/buttons and text)

Keyboard Commands
[commands in square brackets are tentative]

Back and forward (between pages)
ALT+LeftArrow and ALT+RightArrow
To got backwards and forwards
Scroll line up
up arrow key
Change view of document by one line
Scroll line down
Down arrow key
Change view of document by one line
Scroll page up
PageUp key
Change view of document by one view height
Scroll page down
PageDown key
Change view of document by one view height
Top of page
Home key
Change view to beginning of docuemnt
Bottom of page
End key
Change view to beginning of document
Cycle between frames
Ctrl+TAB and Shift+Ctrl+TAB
Cycle between frames of current document
Stop loading
ESC
Stop loading the requested URL (stop at current object)
Next Anchor
Tab
Move to next anchor in document (highlight current anchor)
Previous Anchor
Shift-Tab
Move to previous anchor in document (highlight current anchor)
Load current URL
Enter
Load current URL

[CTRL+ first letters of anchor name]
Move to Anchor that starts with those letters. Hitting CTRL + same letter successively jumps you to anchors which start with that letter.
Next Header
[Control DownArrow]
Move to next HTML header of same level
Previous Header
[Control UpArrow]
Move to previous HTML header of same level
Up Header Level
[Shift-Control UpArrow]
Move up one HTML header level
Down Header Level
[Shift-Control DownArrow]
Move down one HTML header level
Page Summary/Fact Sheet
[Ctrl-Shift-tilde]
Provide summary of objects on the page (or what Shumila calls the "Fact Sheet") which contains info like: source URL or link previously visited, current URL, # of links in curent doc, # of tags in current doc, # of pages in current doc, title of current doc)

Navigating applets:
keyboard events within applets should be handled by the applet.

Next Column
[]

Move between columns in a table
Next Row
[]
Move between rows in a table
Column Header
[]
What is the header of this column?
NOTE: This is not always easy to figure out since some headers take up multiple columns.

Row Header
[]
What is the header of this row?
NOTE: This is not always easy to figure out since some headers take up multiple rows.

Based on notes from Jon Gunderson, Gregg Vanderheiden's WISHIP, an internally circulating document at the University of Toronto by D. Shumila, Accessibility Features in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 and ideas by staff at the TRACE Center.