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Re: Tab navigation for non-interactive content?

for

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Oct 28, 2016 7:57AM


> Coincidentally, I've just recently pushed a change to the W3C HTML5.2 editor's draft specifically warning that authors SHOULD NOT add tabindex values greater or equal to zero to non-interactive elements.

Sam Joehl and I had a twitter conversation with Steve that doesn't seemed to be listed in the thread where we list some situations where it is important. For example, for terms of service or scrolling areas. If the scrolling area is not keyboard focusable or there is not keyboard focusable content in it a keyboard only user or a user of speech recognition will not be able to access that content outside the scrollable area.

There also may be some other readonly type content that isn't in a readonly field like redemption or promotion codes or other things that may need to be copied via the keyboard where the user may not have access to caret browsing, etc.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group 
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Patrick H. Lauke
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 6:04 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Tab navigation for non-interactive content?

On 27/10/2016 20:04, Erik Conrad wrote:

> I know that having a tabindex on non-interactive content is not a best
> practice and may be unexpected or annoying for users who normally use
> the keyboard to navigate, but as someone with experience in UI design
> but new to accessibility, it seems like a fair trade off. I would
> greatly appreciate any opinions about how wrong (or right?) I am about that.

Coincidentally, I've just recently pushed a change to the W3C HTML5.2 editor's draft specifically warning that authors SHOULD NOT add tabindex values greater or equal to zero to non-interactive elements.
https://w3c.github.io/html/editing.html#the-tabindex-attribute

Some discussion on this change here:
https://twitter.com/stevefaulkner/status/789885665253163008

Generally, it's confusing for keyboard users in general (as by default only interactive controls/widgets receive focus). It's further problematic for users of assistive technologies, as these non-interactive elements, when focused, also lack a sensible role (since they're non-interactive, and usually are <div>s, <span>s or similar that don't get any special announcement of role by AT).

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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