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Re: ARIA modal dialogs only read out focusable items (formsand links)

for

From: Bryan Garaventa
Date: Jan 4, 2013 11:08AM


There is an eloquent solution available for this, which is to not use
role=dialog, and instead use aria-hidden=true on the background content so
that it is invisible to screen reader users. This way, the modal is still
the only content that screen reader users interact with, and there is no
negative impact on navigation in the Virtual Buffer.

You can see this in action at
http://whatsock.com/bootstrap
on the Modal tab.

All the best,
Bryan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Humbert, Joseph A" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: < <EMAIL REMOVED> >; < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2013 8:06 AM
Subject: [WebAIM] ARIA modal dialogs only read out focusable items (formsand
links)


> Hi All,
>
> This issue has been brought up in multiple projects I have been involved
> with, ARIA modal dialogs only read out focusable items (form controls and
> links) while ignoring plain text (e.g., instructions) when using some AT
> software. You can view an example for testing at
> http://jqueryui.com/resources/demos/dialog/modal.html. I have tested with
> JAWS 13, latest version of NVDA, and Voiceover (mac OSX) on IE, Firefox
> and Safari. I can reproduce the issue with JAWS 13 and NVDA on Firefox and
> IE. Voiceover seems to work ok.
>
> We have found non-elegant ways around the issue, but it would be nice not
> to have to use hacks.
>
> I believe this issue stems from the ARIA authoring practices modal dialog
> (http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/#dialog_modal) keyboard
> interaction description which appears to only cover dealing with focusable
> items. So AT manufactures may have coded there products to follow the ARIA
> authoring practices.
>
> What are people's opinions about suggesting modifications to the authoring
> practices to address keyboard interaction with plain text? Are there
> elegant cross-browser and cross-AT solutions? Thankx.
>
> Joe Humbert, Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Specialist
> UITS Adaptive Technology and Accessibility Centers
> Indiana University, Indianapolis and Bloomington
> 535 W Michigan St. IT214 E
> Indianapolis, IN 46202
> Office Phone: (317) 274-4378
> Cell Phone: (317) 644-6824
> <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> http://iuadapts.Indiana.edu/<;http://iuadapts.indiana.edu/>;
>
> > >