Please consider different shortcut for Accessibility Help (not Alt-0)

[AR]

ISSUE: On Macs, Alt-0 means Option-0. The Option key is often used to apply accents or access alternate forms of letters within a language. By selecting Alt-0 (Option-0), CKEditor is preventing users of some languages from writing efficiently within the editor.

IMPACT: CKEditor 3.2+

REQUEST: Please select a different keyboard shortcut for the Accessibility Help option of CKEditor.

MORE DETAILS: A language professor at our university complains that Option-0 is a critical accent in the Hebrew language on a Mac. Per the professor's complaint, "On a Mac, Option + anything shouldn't be a built-in hotkey, because Option + keystroke is how you get to accents, alternate forms of letters, etc. In my case, Option + Zero is the keymap for a critical mark in Hebrew, one that is used in practically every multi-syllable word. Yet I have to go to the Mac equivalent of the character map to get this absolutely indispensable mark because CKEditor has hotkeyed the accessibility instructions to Option+Zero. Any way to turn that OFF?"

We have been told that we can't re-assign the Alt-0 (Option-0) shortcut within the CKEditor through the configuration options. Apparently, we can disable all keyboard shortcuts, but this would impact accessibility compliance for users that need navigation access through the keyboard.

To address this issue, please consider either allowing an institution to select a different "Accessibility Help" keyboard shortcut or consider selecting a different shortcut for the editor to minimize impact on content authors using the tool. Perhaps members of the CKEditor community familiar with internationalization and accessibility keyboard shortcuts might identify a preferred shortcut for the tool that won't conflict with screen readers.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

[Piotrek Koszuliński]

Thanks for feedback.

You can indeed remap a11y help to a different keystroke:

CKEDITOR.replace( 'editor1', {
	keystrokes: [
		// Reset ALT+0
		[ CKEDITOR.ALT + 48, null ],
		// Open dialog on ALT+SHIFT+0
		[ CKEDITOR.ALT + CKEDITOR.SHIFT + 48, 'a11yHelp' ]
	]
} );

So, the ALT+0 keystroke will do its default action, when ALT+SHIFT+0 (or any other keystroke you want) will open the a11y helper.

As for the default keystroke, I'm not sure we can change it. I need to wait for my colleagues who have more experience with a11y, but I think that it may be some standard keystroke. Also, we use it for many years time and I don't remember complaints about conflicts with important system keystrokes. We'll investigate this.

[AR]

Thank you very much! Nice to see that there is an option to change this keyboard shortcut. The tool is used in a learning management system, so I'm not sure how much flexibility we have in manipulating it or customizing this code, but this is really helpful.

Appreciate your investigation to see what is best practice in terms of this specific keyboard shortcut.

Thanks again!

[Jakub Ś]

I was convinced that we have different shortcuts assigned based on OS but it seems that this isn't the case as we have other issues of that kind: #10015, #9821.

[Jakub Ś]

DUP of #9078.