WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

ARIA difficult for non-screenreader users?

for

From: Alastair Campbell
Date: May 13, 2013 4:41AM

Hi everyone,

I'm investigating an issue where keyboard users (including voice
recognition) are struggling with tabs / accordion interactions implemented
using WAI-ARIA.

For example, the way you are supposed to interact with a WAI-ARIA tabpanel
[1] is:
1. Use the tab (key) to get to the active tab-label;
2. Use the arrow keys to select which tab is active.

However, testing with non-screenreader keyboard users indicates this is not
a known interaction. People tab to the first label, then tab past, assuming
that the other labels should be links they can select.

It is worse for people using Voice Recognition, because they would say
something like "click tab 2", which would not be a selectable link.

Is there a problem with allowing for both? I.e. make the other tab-labels
standard links, which you can tab to and press enter to activate?

The only other option I can see is to make a glaring educational statement
when people tab to the first label. E.g. onfocus something pops up next to
it saying "please use the arrow keys now!".

Cheers,

-Alastair

1] http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/#tabpanel