E-mail List Archives

Search E-mail List Archives for

Number of posts in this thread: 10 (In chronological order)

From: Donald Evans
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 9:21AM
Subject: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
No previous message | Next message →

Do disabled controls (grayed out to indicate disabled) have to meet WCAG SC
1.4.3?

--
Donald F. Evans,
Making Websites Accessible
Senior Accessibility Architect
Deque Systems
Email: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Download FireEyes Free: http://www.deque.com/products/worldspace-fireeyes

<http://www.deque.com>;

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 9:27AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

No - see 1.4.3:

" Incidental: Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user interface component, that are pure decoration, that are not visible to anyone, or that are part of a picture that contains significant other visual content, have no contrast requirement."

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility

From: Lucy Greco
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 9:33AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

If the link is disabled how does the screen reader know that. Have you coded it in a way ware the screen reader does not speak it if not you need to somehow let everyone know it is disabled. Forget the standers and think about usability first. If I hit this with my screen reader I would try and activate it innless you use some method to let me know otherwise.

Lucy Greco
Assistive Technology Specialist
Disabled Student's Program UC Berkeley
(510) 643-7591
http://attlc.berkeley.edu
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu

From: Paul Adam
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 9:39AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

I recommend using readonly=readonly instead of disabled=disabled because
screen readers will skip right over a disabled form field when tabbing
through. I've seen times where they were obviously using the disabled field
to indicate information visually to users but wanted to prevent the user
from editing that information. By using readonly you can do the same thing,
prevent editing, but keep the field in the TAB order.

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 11:31 AM, Lucy Greco < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:

> If the link is disabled how does the screen reader know that. Have you
> coded it in a way ware the screen reader does not speak it if not you need
> to somehow let everyone know it is disabled. Forget the standers and think
> about usability first. If I hit this with my screen reader I would try and
> activate it innless you use some method to let me know otherwise.
>
> Lucy Greco
> Assistive Technology Specialist
> Disabled Student's Program UC Berkeley
> (510) 643-7591
> http://attlc.berkeley.edu
> http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
>
>
>

From: Steve Faulkner
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 9:45AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

If native controls are disabled using standard means, the disable dstate
information is conveyed via the accessibility API. For custom controls
aria-disabled=true can be used to convey the saem information.

regards
stevef

On 21 November 2011 16:31, Lucy Greco < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> If the link is disabled how does the screen reader know that. Have you
> coded it in a way ware the screen reader does not speak it if not you need
> to somehow let everyone know it is disabled. Forget the standers and think
> about usability first. If I hit this with my screen reader I would try and
> activate it innless you use some method to let me know otherwise.
>
> Lucy Greco
> Assistive Technology Specialist
> Disabled Student's Program UC Berkeley
> (510) 643-7591
> http://attlc.berkeley.edu
> http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
>
>
>

From: Donald Evans
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 9:51AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

So there seems to be a bit of a disconnect. SC 1.4.3 clearly
indicates "* *Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user
interface component<http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-contrast.html#user-interface-componentdef>;"
are exempt from color contrast rules.

Yet, this control conveys the information that it is disabled. So we use
ARIA to indicate that; we create tab stops, etc. But how is this
information conveyed to the low vision magnifier user who can not discern
the difference in contrast?



On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 11:39 AM, Paul Adam < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> I recommend using readonly=readonly instead of disabled=disabled because
> screen readers will skip right over a disabled form field when tabbing
> through. I've seen times where they were obviously using the disabled field
> to indicate information visually to users but wanted to prevent the user
> from editing that information. By using readonly you can do the same thing,
> prevent editing, but keep the field in the TAB order.
>
> On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 11:31 AM, Lucy Greco < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> >wrote:
>
> > If the link is disabled how does the screen reader know that. Have you
> > coded it in a way ware the screen reader does not speak it if not you
> need
> > to somehow let everyone know it is disabled. Forget the standers and
> think
> > about usability first. If I hit this with my screen reader I would try
> and
> > activate it innless you use some method to let me know otherwise.
> >
> > Lucy Greco
> > Assistive Technology Specialist
> > Disabled Student's Program UC Berkeley
> > (510) 643-7591
> > http://attlc.berkeley.edu
> > http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
> >
> >
> >

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 9:57AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

Don,
I think that in that situation the user will essentially need to think - "hey, there's a button here but I can't read the text on it like I can other buttons in this app, and I can't seem to click on it either - it must be currently non-functional".

Re: Paul's suggestion, I don't recommend using readonly when the object is an inactive control. Read only and inactive are not equivalent. If the desire is to keep disabled controls in the tab order, then please make that comment to the HTML5 specification so browser vendors will implement the right method. I'm not sure that I agree that disabled controls should be in the tab order - as a sighted user who relies heavily on the keyboard I'd prefer that inactive controls not be in the tab order as it just adds unnecessary tab stops.

Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe Systems

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://twitter.com/awkawk
http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility

From: Jared Smith
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 10:03AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 9:48 AM, Donald Evans wrote:

> But how is this
> information conveyed to the low vision magnifier user who can not discern
> the difference in contrast?

It's the lack of contrast that conveys this information. It seems odd,
but it's the slight inaccessibility of the control that conveys that
it is disabled. To maintain high contrast on the control would suggest
that the control is actionable, thus making it less accessible and
usable to everybody.

Jared

From: Paul Adam
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 10:09AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | Next message →

Should be able to style the disabled or readonly control to improve the
contrast and still indicate they are not meant for editing by creating a
custom CSS style that looks different than the editable fields.

The semantics of the control's attribute should indicate to AT that it's
disabled or readonly as well.

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 11:56 AM, Jared Smith < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 9:48 AM, Donald Evans wrote:
>
> > But how is this
> > information conveyed to the low vision magnifier user who can not discern
> > the difference in contrast?
>
> It's the lack of contrast that conveys this information. It seems odd,
> but it's the slight inaccessibility of the control that conveys that
> it is disabled. To maintain high contrast on the control would suggest
> that the control is actionable, thus making it less accessible and
> usable to everybody.
>
> Jared
>

From: Donald Evans
Date: Mon, Nov 21 2011 10:15AM
Subject: Re: Disabled Controls and WCAG Contrast
← Previous message | No next message

I did see that, but the grayed out content does indicate disabled to the
sighted user. So wasn't sure it was decoration?

On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 11:24 AM, Andrew Kirkpatrick < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >wrote:

> No - see 1.4.3:
>
> " Incidental: Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user
> interface component, that are pure decoration, that are not visible to
> anyone, or that are part of a picture that contains significant other
> visual content, have no contrast requirement."
>
> Thanks,
> AWK
>
> Andrew Kirkpatrick
> Group Product Manager, Accessibility
> Adobe Systems
>
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> http://twitter.com/awkawk
> http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility
>
>