Hi All,

I'll give credit when credit is due and I've noticed a couple things in my
week of exploring IE 5 that I like a great deal about the way it interacts
with the keyboard.  These discoveries don't pertain to turning on a MSAA
(Microsoft Active Accessibility) mode for screen readers for those that
support it.  As near as I can tell they are independent of any particular
screen reader and work whether a screen reader is running or not.

First, earlier versions of IE had what I considered a problem when using
the Tab and Enter keys to move to and follow links.  More particularly, the
problem occured when you returned from following a link.  In the past when
you returned from one of your explorations the focus of the tab key was
automatically returned to the top of the web page.  This situation has been
improved.  Now your tab focus is returned to the link you were on when you
left the page.  The new method of handling the Tab key focus also improves
navigation of documents with internal links as things track correctly.

Second, if you click the mouse or your screen reader equivalent on
non-linked text of a web page, the tab key focus jumps to the closest link
to that mouse click the first time you press Tab.  In the past you would
have started with the first link on the page.

Imagine that you have a web page that reads as follows, with each name of a
city taking you to more details.

Begin Sample Web Page

This page will explore the places Kelly has called home.

Fond du Lac, a small Wisconsin town.
Madison, with so many parties when does anyone attend class?
San Francisco, Ghirardelli Square and North Beach are must stops for
chocolate and pizza respectively.
San Diego, oh what a treat is sunny San Diego.
Portland, can it honestly rain this much?

End Sample Web Page

Suppose you wanted more details on San Diego and were using the keyboard to
navigate the web page.  You would tab until you had selected San Diego and
would then press Enter.  After reading about San Diego you'd press alt-left
arrow to return to the page listing various cities and your keyboard focus
would be returned to San Diego.  Tab would take you to Portland and
shift-tab to San Francisco.

To illustrate my second point, a discovery I'm pleased to find, imagine
that you clicked the mouse on the word "chocolate" in the line talking
about San Francisco.  After doing this a single press of the Tab key would
put the focus on San Diego, because that's the next link in the text.  A
press of shift-Tab would focus on San Francisco.  Depending on the browsing
strategy you use for a web page, this may be of help in getting you
focussed quickly on the links around the text you are reading.  Screen
readers offer other techniques for helping in this area and you should
determine a browsing/reading strategy that meets your needs.

Kelly


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