WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Accessible forms

for

From: deborah.kaplan
Date: Dec 10, 2013 4:57PM

Akshi Kakar wrote:

> should I move my focus to that form field by default such that when the page loads the focus is within that field?

Please don't!

As a user with a motor disability, this practice makes life much more difficult for me. For those of us who control computer via keyboard or keyboard-emulation (eg. voice), grabbing the focus means that before we do anything else we have to blur the focus (which is non-trivial in many browsers without extra tools). Even if you have only one formfield, grabbing the focus prevents me from navigating to your home page, your sitemap, your help page -- or even back to the page I came from.

> For users with motor disabilities, would it be easier to maintain focus on the form field or will they be able to use keyboard shortcuts and move to the required field easily?

It is much easier to move to the field by choice than to move out of the field we didn't expect to capture us!

Deborah Kaplan
Accessibility Team Co-Lead
Dreamwidth Studios