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Re: Errors with tab order and reading order in forms

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From: JP Jamous
Date: Nov 29, 2016 7:45AM

I have not had the chance to do what Ann has done, but as a programmer, it is obvious why the tool is giving you errors. Jonathon is right about it. A program is dumb in the sense that it only does what it was told to do. It cannot make intelligent decisions like humans. If it does we won't need WCAG auditors.

So your issue is that you are submissive to the tool. Don't let that dumb thing confuse you and convince you that it is smarter than your brain. If you know what you are doing, you can safely ignore those errors.

My quote as a programmer to all programmers and developers, "If it works when you test it. Then, it is correct and no need to follow what your IDE tools tell you." You tested it and it worked. Do not analyze it. It ain't your job. *Smiles*.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jonathan Avila
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2016 8:34 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Errors with tab order and reading order in forms

>> > I'm having a significant issue with a particular page of a form.
> Are you using tabindex=1,2,3,4+, etc. to try and manually control the tab order? Don't do that if so.

I think Anne is talking about PDF. There are some situations in PDF where the focus order may need to be different than the document structure order. In those specific cases it is ok. For example, say a table is used and the data table contains forms fields and headers, etc. It may be the preferred focus order to fill out all fields in column 1 first -- yet the structure order is row 1, row 2, etc. which would dictate filling out all fields in row 1 first. As long as the focus order is correct to the business logic and all fields are focusable the warning could safely be ignored in my opinion.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (Office)

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Paul J. Adam
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2016 6:13 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Errors with tab order and reading order in forms

Are you using tabindex=1,2,3,4+, etc. to try and manually control the tab order? Don't do that if so.

Just let the source code or DOM order of the page control the focus and reading order of content.

I'd recommend using the autofocus attribute if you want to start focus at a certain input on the page rather than using tabindex.

http://pauljadam.com/demos/positivetabindexfail.html <http://pauljadam.com/demos/positivetabindexfail.html>;
http://pauljadam.com/demos/autofocusvstabindex.html <http://pauljadam.com/demos/autofocusvstabindex.html>;

If you share some code or a working demo we can answer your question better.

Thanks!

Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
www.deque.com

> On Nov 28, 2016, at 5:07 PM, Anne Godlewski < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm having a significant issue with a particular page of a form.
>
> When I re-order the form fields on this page (page 8) using the Forms tool, my accessibility checker tells me that on several pages, the tab order may be inconsistent with the document structure. When I set the tab order to follow the document structure, I lose about 10 form field tags throughout the document and the reading order on page 8 gets messed up. So I add the form field tags back and leave the tab order according to the document structure, and the accessibility checker says all is well, but I can see that the reading order on page 8 is still completely wrong. If I correct one error, I'm left with the other error.
>
> Is there a solution to this awful cycle?
>
> Thanks,
> Anne
>
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>