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Re: How JAWS reads checkboxes

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From: Michael Bullis
Date: Jan 27, 2016 6:22AM


I used my first screen reader in 1980. It continues to be frustrating that, after thirty-five years, there are no firm standards for what is expected.
I think that, long ago, companies should have agreed on similar keystrokes for similar actions, and, for similar reading of things like checkboxes. We continue to be marginalized because each company feels like its method is better. The effect is that one cannot easily move between screen readers without learning a multitude of new keystrokes and behaviors.




Michael Bullis
Executive Director,
The IMAGE Center of Maryland
300 E. Joppa Road,
Suite 312
Towson MD
21286
Email: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Office: 443-275-9394
Cell: 443-286-9001
Website: www.imagemd.org

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Tim Harshbarger
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2016 8:17 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] How JAWS reads checkboxes

Yes, I believe that is typical in browse mode for JAWs and it is ok that it does that.

This is one of those areas where behaviors of screen readers can be different, but either behavior is perfectly ok.

The reason I say that is, in both cases, the screen reader reads the name of the checkbox when you move to it. The difference is just that one screen reader decided that the label does not exist separately from the checkbox (or they feel that is a better user experience) while the other screen reader considers that label also to be a separate piece of information in addition to being the name of the checkbox (or they feel their approach makes for a better user experience.)

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Helene VINH
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2016 6:56 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] How JAWS reads checkboxes

Hello,

I have a question concerning the way JAWS reads checkboxes.

Implementing a very basic checkbox as follow:

<input type="checkbox" id="myCheckbox" />
<label for="myCheckbox">Pizza</label>

JAWS is reading twice the label using the arrow keys: "Pizza checkbox not checked", then again "Pizza".
Is that the normal behaviour of JAWS? I tested with JAWS 15 and 16. NVDA does not repeat the label.

Thanks

Helene Vinh
Developer at Amadeus