WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Quick JAWS Question

for

From: David Ashleydale
Date: Jul 8, 2013 5:14PM

Hi,

I just have a quick JAWS question. I've been using JAWS for years, although
I'm not really an expert at it. I'm using JAWS 14 on a Windows 7 machine.
I'm looking at a web page in IE 10. It's a form.

I'm noticing something that I've never noticed before, but maybe I've just
missed it. When I use the Tab key to go from field to field, JAWS announces
any text that has been explicitly labeled for each form field. Like this:

Me: Tab key.
JAWS: "First Name. Edit. Type in text."
Me: Tab key.
JAWS: "Last Name. Edit. Type in text."

That's cool.

But if I navigate using the up and down arrow keys, JAWS doesn't announce
the field label when the field receives focus. Like this:

Me: Down arrow.
JAWS: "First Name."
Me: Down arrow.
JAWS: "blank."
Me: Down arrow.
JAWS: "Edit."
Me: Down arrow.
JAWS: "Last Name."
Me: Down arrow.
JAWS: "blank."
Me: Down arrow.
JAWS: "Edit."

Before I continue investigating the code and everything, I just wanted to
get a reality check. Is this expected JAWS behavior? I had thought that
JAWS would announce the label again when I down arrowed into the field
instead of just saying "Edit". Because if I couldn't see the page, for all
I know the page author may have coded the labels after the fields. Are JAWS
users expected to only use the Tab key when interacting with forms if they
want to be sure which label is associated with which field?

Thanks,
David