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Standard being reported: Section 6: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Subsection Nine: Design for Device Independence.

The standard may be accessed here.

As not everyone is able to use pointing-devices in order to access elements on a web page, it is vital to provide alternative methods for the activation of elements. Those using sites through screen readers, head wands, or other methods will not be able to view elements without consideration taken for them. Text equivalents are required for any maps or images so that users can interact with the page without a pointing device. These text equivalents will be read by screen readers in order to give users a better sense of what a page is doing. Pages that allow keyboard interaction are often accessible through speech input or a command line interface. Any elements with their own interfaces must be accessible through a variety of devices as well.

This can be implemented by web designers without too much trouble--and is easily testable by using the keyboard alone to navigate through a site. Tabindexes should be used in order to ensure that forms display in a logical order when not using a mouse. And, text equivalents should be used for any image, so using it for image maps and navigation is a fairly intuitive prerequisite. Keyboard shortcuts to important links are helpful even to those who can use a pointing device, so they ought to be implemented by developers. When using scripts, developers should refrain from using action listeners that require a specific type of action--logical event handlers should be used, such as the "onload" method as opposed to "onblur" or whatever.

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