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Re: selecting ARIA Tabs and Windows screen readers

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: May 23, 2015 3:25PM

Oh, to correct .. I do call it a WCAG violation if tabs are not
contained in a tablist, that is a violation of SC 4.1.2, my comment
had more to do with the tab vs. arrow key behavior.

On 5/23/15, Birkir R. Gunnarsson < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Jennifer
> I think the differences might be based on whether the tab gets
> selected and its associated content loaded into the tabpanel when you
> select it with the arrow key, vs. only performing that action when
> user has focus on that tab and presses enter.
> The ARIA Authoring Practices recommends the former, and Jaws appears
> to expect the same, based on the fact that the Jaws shortcut key for
> tabs is the same as for comboboxes (well, dropdowns) i.e. pressing "c"
> gets you to the next select or tab on a webpage.
> This is also the approach we followed when we implemented example tabs
> for Deque University:
> https://dequeuniversity.com/library/aria/tabpanels-accordions/sf-responsive-tabs-to-accordion#
> I am not necessarily sure this is the one and only correct way to
> implement tabs. E.g. if each tab panel contains a lot of content it
> might slow the browsing experience down a lot when the content for
> every tab when keyboard only user is moving the focus to it. If there
> are 4 tabs between the currently selected one and the tab the user
> wants, the page will refresh 5 times before he gets to it vs. if user
> needs to explicitly activate the tab with the keyboard he can naviate
> to the desired tab without affecting the page content and only load
> the content he is interested in. However, I believe there is no one
> right way to do this and it is up to the website. I think eiher
> behavior is acceptable.
> I have also let tabs go that are not ntested in a tablist and wehre
> all the tabs are in focus order. I think this is acceptable if we have
> ooonly 2 or 3 tabs on the page. The extra work of implementing arrow
> key navigation within a set of 2 or 3 tabs to me just does not seem to
> necessarily bring that great benefit to the user. wCAG does not
> absolutely dictate how to operate controls with the keyboard, though
> the Authoring Practices makes good recommendations.
> Cheers
> -Birkir
>
>
>
> On 5/22/15, Jennifer Sutton < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Greetings, WebAIM:
>>
>> I'm testing some ARIA tabs, and I am getting different behavior when
>> using JFW 15 and IE 11 and JFW 15 and FF 36.
>>
>> I've seen so many different implementations of ARIA tabs that I need
>> to confirm my expectations.
>>
>>
>> Before everyone says: "just use NVDA," I'm about to test that, too,
>> but end-users are likely to be using JFW, so I need to test with that.
>>
>> I'm getting different results with these combinations, and I'm not
>> sure whether it's the code or the AT. So . . .
>>
>> Does anyone have a sample of ARIA Tabs that they feel is implemented
>> correctly, so I can compare that with my test case?
>>
>> I'm imagining VO for the Mac would function similarly; I'm only
>> concerned about the desktop experience.
>>
>> This is a very simple set of two ARIA tabs only. I don't want lists
>> or headings involved, if possible.
>>
>>
>> I can hear that a tab is initially selected by default (and
>> identified as such), and when I hit enter on the second one, I go
>> into forms mode. And while I can then use up and down arros to move
>> between the two, when I use escape to exit forms mode (when on the
>> tab I want to choose), sometimes it shows as selected, and sometimes
>> it doesn't. And I don't get selection feedback when in forms mode
>> and moving between the two tabs. I'd think JFW should be able to
>> report that, but perhaps I'm incorrect.
>>
>> I believe these are vertical tabs, so using up and down arrow (rather
>> than right and left for horizontal ones) does seem correct in this case.
>>
>> I've got plenty of examples of code; it's confirmation of screen
>> reader user expectations I need. And maybe there are browser issues I
>> need to watch out for, but ARIA tabs have been around for a long
>> time, so I'm hoping not.
>>
>> When these two tabs are tested with keyboard-only (no screen reader),
>> they do operate correctly.
>>
>> Thanks, and happy long weekend to all in the U.S.
>>
>> Best,
>> Jennifer
>>
>> >> >> >> >>
>
>
> --
> Work hard. Have fun. Make history.
>


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Work hard. Have fun. Make history.