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Re: focus indicators and usability studies

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From: Denis Boudreau
Date: Jun 13, 2014 12:07PM

Deborah,

Why not simply have those designers go through a site that removed keyboard focus indication and let them figure out where they are? Above and beyond usability research, the simple experience of tabbing through a site where keyboard focus has been completely removed should be enough to convince even the most stubborn of designers...

A fantastic example of focus indicator suckiness in all its glory awaits for you here: http://www.ci.wilmington.de.us/ [1] - for extra fun as you drive your point home, ask them to locate specific information on that website about the day where trash is picked up, without using their mouse...

[1] In all fairness, I found this example in one of Elle Waters' presentation during AccessU last month. So the credit goes to her and Derek Featherstone from Simply Accessible for coming up with the website example.

/Denis



On Jun 13, 2014, at 1:45 PM, Iaffaldano, Michelangelo < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> If your designers do not trust WAI perhaps they will believe the Nielsen Norman Group? As usual they link to their own research, some of it free:
> http://www.nngroup.com/articles/keyboard-accessibility/
>
>
> Regards,
> Michelangelo
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
> Sent: June 12, 2014 4:35 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List
> Subject: [WebAIM] focus indicators and usability studies
>
> I'm being asked for usability studies to support the notion that we shouldn't remove focus indicators. Most of my go to articles for focus indicators take for granted that since WCAG and Section 508 extremely explicit about focus indicators, that's enough. But in this particular case, in order to convince the designers, I think I'll need to pull out some usability studies. Has anyone done usability or UX studies covering focus indicators? I was sure I knew of some but now I can't find them.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Deborah Kaplan
>
> > >