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Auto-focusing form fields

for

From: Tim Beadle
Date: Apr 18, 2007 7:30AM

Hello all,

We've just had an accessibility audit done on one of our sites:
http://medicalphysicsweb.org/

One of the recommendations made was that we remove the JavaScript that
auto focuses the first (or first with an error) field in a form, as it
causes screen readers to skip past the error text, which is
unfortunately displayed before the start of the form itself.

One of my colleagues is sceptical and wants more proof (i.e. whether
it is indeed a problem, and which screen readers this applies to).

Can anyone shed any more light?

Thanks,

Tim