Hi Chris, The submission by pressing enter is a native browser behaviour, hence is not an accessibility issue.
You will only be able to submit via enter from an input field and not from a textarea, which you have to tab out of and then hit enter. So I doubt you will find any references to back-up your claim. If you do, send it through so we can debunk it. :-D Best, Jason Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -----Original Message----- From: "Chris Vickery" <chris.vick...@privacy.gov.au> Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:20:51 To: wsg@webstandardsgroup.org<wsg@webstandardsgroup.org> Subject: [WSG] Is pressing Enter to submit (or not) on forms an accessability issue? [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED] We're accessibility testing at the moment. We've got some email forms (ie. Put in your email address to subscribe -> submit) that do not currently submit if you press enter. Personally I feel this should be an accessibility issue, but I am finding it difficult to locate any solid documentation to back up my claim. I've had the argument put to me that a keyboard only user could still tab to the submit button, then press enter, but this seems very unintuitive to me to force users to do this. I've also had put to me that some users get confused if they want to put line breaks in a field and submit by accident... and so to be consistent pressing enter should never submit a form. (data entry people would love that one :P) Is submitting by pressing enter from a form best practice, or just common practice? Is it an accessibility problem? ... and to what degree? *********************************************************************** WARNING: The information contained in this email may be confidential. If you are not the intended recipient, any use or copying of any part of this information is unauthorised. If you have received this email in error, we apologise for any inconvenience and request that you notify the sender immediately and delete all copies of this email, together with any attachments. *********************************************************************** ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org ******************************************************************* ******************************************************************* List Guidelines: http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm Unsubscribe: http://webstandardsgroup.org/join/unsubscribe.cfm Help: memberh...@webstandardsgroup.org *******************************************************************