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Re: Announcing Region Labels on OSX

for

From: Paul J. Adam
Date: May 15, 2014 2:16PM

I don't recommend using visually hidden text, you'll find this causes problems later down the road.

For VO OS X you need to add a role=region and use an aria-label instead of visually hidden text.

Role=application is a BIG responsibility! You have to control every keyboard key they press with JavaScript events.

Is the user not going to need any heading quick navigation keys or other screen reader nav keys while using the application?


Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
www.deque.com

On May 15, 2014, at 2:56 PM, Jesse Hausler < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> I'm having trouble using ARIA to get VoiceOver on OSX to announce a
> descriptive title for a region.
>
> We're prototyping a builder type application. Think Visio, but way simpler
> / smaller feature set.
>
> We're planning to use the role="application" for the entire thing so we can
> control keyboard behavior throughout the product.
>
> The idea we are going with is to have 4 panels the user can switch between:
>
> - Toolbar (at the top)
> - Control Panel (on the left)
> - Properties Panel (on the right)
> - the main working canvas (in the middle)
>
> F6 and Shift+F6 move the user from panel to panel. Each panel has a <span>
> with an offscreen class, which labels the panel. We put an aria-labelledby
> attribute on the outermost element of the panel which links the descriptive
> span.
>
> For example:
>
> <section aria-labelledy="tbar">
> <span class="assistiveText" id="tbar">Toolbar</span>
> ... rest of the panel content...
> </section>
>
> I get proper feedback using Jaws and FF: "Toolbar region..."
> VoiceOver with both Safari and Chrome will state that his is a Group, which
> makes sense, but it wont announce the "Toolbar" part.
>
> We've tried using aria-describedby, aria-label, and a regular old title
> attribute. The only thing that works is aria-labelledby with Jaws, nothing
> on Mac.
>
> Any experience with this sort of problem? Possible solutions?
>
> Or did i just start myself a blog post? :)
>
> Happy Global Accessibility Awareness Day everyone!
>
> Jesse
> > >