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Re: Reg focus management for web application screen/layout changes.

for

From: Stella Mudd
Date: Aug 4, 2012 12:25PM

Ramya, for me, it always depends on context. What type of app is this, who
is it for, what is the current and surrounding information, etc.? For most
of my dialog with forms, I typically focus the first input by default even
if the majority gravitate toward the following input. There is no
steadfast rule for accessibility, only that there are no *barriers* to
access. I would think your users will find the drop-down it if it directly
proceeds, but users looking for a preceding input may find it difficult to
find. However, your situation might be different. What I suggest is to
turn on a screen reader, turn off the monitor, and have someone who doesn't
know your app try to use it with the tab/arrow keys. Can they find what
they are looking for? If so, then a screen reader user probably can too.
Do whatever works for your users.

Best,
Stella

On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 8:42 AM, Ramya Sethuraman < <EMAIL REMOVED>
> wrote:

> Thanks for the info but I think my question is slightly different: more
> details in this stackoverflow post I made:
>
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11804257/web-accessibility-does-it-make-sense-for-focus-to-go-to-another-element-other-t/11804950#comment15694876_11804950
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 10:20 AM, Ryan Hemphill <
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > wrote:
>
> > This is a very interesting question. One of the things that this brings
> up
> > is the need to consider the fact that the popup (also called "modal") can
> > be used for a large variety of content - pretty much all the content that
> > you would see in a normal web page.
> >
> > It is for this reason that I feel pretty strongly that you should be
> > handling your modal window content the same way you would focus on a
> normal
> > page, but let the user know about the focus change. I know there are
> > others that feel differently about this, but I would ask those that
> object
> > to take a look at the different ways that modal windows are being used
> out
> > in the wild these days. I think you will find that it demonstrates the
> > diversity I was referring to.
> >
> > I think the most important thing, Ramya, is to let the user know that a
> > focus change has occurred, drop it at the top of the dialog/popup/modal
> and
> > give them a sense of where they have jumped to and the nature of the
> > content. I would also like to mention that while you might be tempted to
> > drop focus on a heading at the top of your popup, which would make sense
> -
> > don't. JAWS has a bug in 10, 11 and 12(not sure about 13) that will
> cause
> > it to read off as an empty text field.
> >
> > With that, I'm off to vacation land. Have a good weekend, all!
> >
> > Ryan
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 7:00 PM, Ramya Sethuraman <
> > <EMAIL REMOVED>
> > > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > My question is about focus management for web accessibility. When we
> > launch
> > > a popup/dialog, does focus always need to go to the first focusable
> > element
> > > for accessibility reasons or is it acceptable to set focus on an
> element
> > > that we think the user is more likely to want to work with?
> > >
> > > For example, if a dialog starts with an input field and a cancel link
> > > followed by a dropdown and we think the user would most likely want to
> > work
> > > with the dropdown when the dialog loads, is it ok to set focus on the
> > > dropdown element? In this case, how would the user know about the
> > previous
> > > focusable elements existing on the dialog? But, if the dropdown is
> where
> > > 80% of the users will want to be when the dialog is launched, it
> doesn't
> > > make much sense placing focus on the initial input field...
> > >
> > > Thoughts?
> > >
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Ramya
> > > > > > > > > > > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> >
> >
> > Shipping is a Feature...Perhaps the Most Important Feature.
> > > > > > > >
>
>
>
> --
> *I also exist @: http://www.ramyasethuraman.com*
> > > >