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

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Aug 8, 2012 1:31PM

Hi

I think placing the focus on the first element is the most sensible
one. Screen reader users in general (well, in my experience), need
consistency and predictability, to the extent possible, and when you
start putting the focus and skipping elements they canot be aware of,
it may cause a lot of confusion.
Now whether the screen readers themselves need to reconsider their
approach to the web, to e.g. play a sound if the page is moving focus
to a field with other fields in-between (or announced, skiping over x
fields when that happens), is another topic for another discussion,
personally I am all for it.
But my point is, that if you are using a typical dropdown menu, the
user can get from it with one key stroke in most screen readers (c for
instance), using the SR's built-in navigation keys to jump to the next
element of a particular type, so you would really only be saving the
user one element (unless he or she has forms mode activated by
default). I think it'd be best to start the area of with a heading and
place the focus on there myself. If, for some reason, you are using
AJAX or ARIA implementation of a dropdown list, you might even want to
consider creating a shortcut key (I know this is not PC, some people
do not like access keys at all, but I still feel there are situations,
such as this one, where it actually does make some sense).
Just my 2 cents.
Thanks
-B

On 8/6/12, Ramya Sethuraman < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> That makes sense, Stella. I think for my use case, an iPhone app where
> users know the general layout of the popup from repeated use, it probably
> makes sense to put focus on the element they would pick 90% of the time
> instead of the preceding links. I don't think this constitutes barrier to
> access but I do think placing focus on the first less likely link reduces
> usability of the app for screen reader, keyboard only users...
>
> On Sat, Aug 4, 2012 at 2:25 PM, Stella Mudd < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> 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*
>> > >> > >> > >> >
>> >> >> >>
>
>
>
> --
> *I also exist @: http://www.ramyasethuraman.com*
> > > >