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Re: Tab widgets

for

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Jul 6, 2011 9:39AM

OK, I am going to be difficult--not because I necessarily disagree, but because whatever guidance I provide to others, I need to be able to defend--well, not defend...the process isn't adversarial, but I have to be able to address concerns with the approach.

I know that in discussions about RIA widget interactions and how they should work, they looked at how various OS's handled those interactions. With regards to tabs and tab panels, the different OS's do not handle the revealing of new tab panel content the same way. So, the recommended approach in this document isn't necessarily recommended because its universal.

The recommended approach works very well if the tab panel content is preloaded. If it isn't, there is a possibility that the tab panel update can fall behind whatever the current tab focus is. Is that likely to cause issues for people using the keyboard to interact with tab widgets who can see what is happening? It might be an issue for screen reader users too--but since someone using a screen reader will have to select a tab and then move to the panel, enough time should pass for the DOM to be updated with the current content.

So is the potential delay in the update for the tab panel an issue that might cause problems for users or is it a non-issue? If it is a real concern, how are people addressing it?

Thanks!
Tim
Your Friendly Neighborhood Accessibility consultant
State Farm Insurance Companies

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Donald Evans
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2011 8:42 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Tab widgets

The recommended keyboard shortcuts for a tabbed interface can be found at:
http://dev.aol.com/dhtml_style_guide#tabpanel

This was a subcommittee of the ARIA working group...


On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Tim Harshbarger <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> For those of you who are dealing with, designing, or developing rich
> internet application widgets, how are you handling tabs interactions?
>
> Do your tab panels change as the user changes focus from tab to tab or do
> you only update the tab panel when the user selects the tab using the
> spacebar or enter key?
>
> I am finding advice on using both interaction approaches. I am trying to
> decide what is optimal. Right now, I am leaning towards requiring the user
> to press the spacebar or enter key to select the tab. The reason being, if
> the tab selection triggers an http request to retrieve updated tab panel
> contents from the server, its possibly going to be confusing to the user if
> they use the arrow keys to move across the tabs and the panel is being
> updated slightly behind the current selection. So, you move from tab A to
> tab B to tab C and, by the time you are on tab C, the content you are seeing
> is for tab B because the server is moving slow enough that the panel hasn't
> updated yet.
>
> Thanks!
> Tim
> Tim Harshbarger
> Your Friendly Neighborhood Accessibility Guy
> State Farm Insurance Companies
>
>