What improvements to accessibility are offered by HTML5?

Question

What benefits are offered by HTML5 over HTML 4.01 or XHTML 1.0 Strict for accessibility?

Answer 1

I am not blind or deaf or officially disabled at all but I am absolutely friggin sick of using websites. After 15 years of dragging a mouse around the screen and watching the navigability of websites decrease as my arms and wrists have become increasingly sore is making me depressed!! There are simple solutions which could be built into any new standard. The 'hit'a'hint plugin' for firefox was great but not always updated. I like the very similar new 'ALT' shortcuts with the MS ribbon interfaces, they are a godsend, although I do not think it will get me back from Linux. How difficult would it be to have inbuilt shortcuts in HTML 5.0. You hold a key, it gives you a keyboard cut to hit... absolutely simple. This could prevent tens if not hundreds of millions of people from developing long term arm and wrist damage in the future. My own problem did not start until after 20 years of computer use and 10 years of mouse use, so there is a potential time-bomb ticking here.