Developing in Joomla sometimes throws up minor issues with solutions so simple that you wonder why they’re not in the core code.  While putting together the Rangitikei District Council’s website we discovered that there’s no easy way to set up Navigation Access Keys in Joomla 1.5, as per the New Zealand Government Web Standards (http://webstandards.govt.nz/8-4-navigation-access-keys/).  The keys are a great navigation aid to non-mouse users and are recommended by w3c (http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/#keyboard-operation).
To add Access Keys to a Joomla site you need to hack at the core code of your Joomla install.  There are some basic instructions on the Joomla documentation site at http://docs.joomla.org/Adding_Access_Keys.  This sets up a new “Accessibility Access Key” field in the System Parameters dropdown that’s available when you edit an menu item, allowing you to simply enter the keystroke you want to associate with that menu link on your site.

The hack makes it easy to add as many access keys as you need, and you can offer more than just the basic keystroke options set on most government websites.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 21st, 2009 at 3:22 pm and is filed under joomla. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.