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Re: does datepicker have to be accessible

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From: Birkir Rúnar Gunnarsson
Date: Feb 8, 2011 7:54AM

Hi Andrew

There is a pattern recognition capability, at least in the higher
versions of Jaws, and you can specify rules for how patterns are
pronounced (I am 99% sure, I use a braille display so I tend not to
use it much).
It depends on the version and the screen reader you have, whether and
how they pronounced different things such as phone numbers.
I have not come across a screen reader yet that pronounced dd/mm/yyyy
or mm/dd/yyyy distinctly enough.
But, like you said, may be this is actually one for the screen reader
manufacturers, since it is common practice and this format can hardly
be confused with anything else (the chances of dd/mm/yyyy being
anything other than a date template or placeholder are remote).
I'll jot this down and suggest it to the SR representatives at CSUN.
Thanks
-B

On 2/8/11, Andrew Kirkpatrick < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Birkir,
> This is an interesting problem - JAWS does allow you to configure the
> reading for repeated letters, but this makes reading tedious in other ways
> (e.g. when someone puts a line of periods or dashes as part of their email
> sig). The default setting also means that if my phone number is
> 123-456-0000 that you won't hear it correctly, won't it?
>
> I wonder whether screen reader vendors have considered parsing the text and
> analyzing whether there is a phone number or a common date identifier. They
> should - I doubt that many people will stop using mm/dd/yyyy since it is
> short, and also avoids confusion for people who might enter the date as
> dd/mm/yyyy....
>
> Thanks,
> AWK
>
> Andrew Kirkpatrick
> Group Product Manager, Accessibility
> Adobe Systems
>
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> http://twitter.com/awkawk
> http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir Rúnar
> Gunnarsson
> Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 9:33 AM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] does datepicker have to be accessible
>
> I would be fine with an input edit field, but I do recommend the
> solution with 3 listboxes, month, day, year (or whichever order). This
> will also simplify validation on the server side of the input format.
> One thing I, as a user, find annoying is when the mm/dd/yyyy is in the
> label for the field, Jaws does not clearly distinguish between this
> and mm/dd/yy, so I would suggest a sample format such as (please enter
> your date, for instance 01/01/2000). This way the format is conveyed
> unambiguously to someone who only uses speech.
> If there are limits on th dates you can enter (such as a booking
> system that only accepts bookings till the end of the year), please
> indicate that as well.
> hth
> -B
>
> On 2/8/11, Susan Grossman < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>>>> Scenario: a textbox meant to have a date written in it. A button next to
>> it
>> (calendar icon) which opens the datepicker to choose a date. One can enter
>> a
>> date manually into the textbox, as well. Does the datepicker need to be
>> accessible, or is it enough that the user can manually enter a date into
>> it
>> without making use of the datepicker?
>>
>>
>> --- Often the accessible date-pickers are more work than just typing it in
>> and is something you should consider. As long as the format is clear, as
>> stated by others, having a text box is just fine.
>>
>> There's nothing wrong with enhancing things for a user who doesn't need
>> AT's
>> as long as the main function works well for all. You can use colors the
>> color-blind can't see as long as the contrast is there for them....
>>
>>
>> --
>> *Susan R. Grossman*
>> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>>