(5.2.5) Access Keys - still applicable?

[nrooney]

This section states "Where there is no pointing device, assigning an access key (keyboard short cut) to a link can provide a convenient way for users to access the link and avoid navigating to the link by repeated pressing of the navigation key". Is this still applicable now most devices have keyboards on-screen?

[dontcallmedom]

I think it is not applicable to on-screen keyboards; it probably remains applicable to devices with hardware keyboards though; also, HTML5 allows more than one accesskey per attribute now, which (assuming it is indeed implemented on those devices with hardware keyboards) would suggest that the advice might be worth updating at the very least

[jorabin]

I've always been a bit sceptical about this. How many users know about access keys?

[nrooney]

Well, we could leave it but change the language to being "for those devices with static keyboards" or something to that effect?!