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Progress indication

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From: Joe Chidzik
Date: Jul 22, 2014 2:09AM

I'm currently reviewing some mobile registration forms, split across multiple pages. A visual progress bar gives sighted users an indicator of their progress through the registration process.

I'm advising that this progress information should also be made available to screenreader users. However, because the registration process is non-linear, it is possible to complete it in different numbers of stepspages depending on the route taken.

For sighted users, the progress bar just indicates analogue progress - you can see roughly how far through the process you, even if you are not told the exact number of pages left to complete.

I'm unsure how best to advise screenreader users of this same information. As above, it would not be useful to advise how many pages are left as this value is dependent on the route through the process. Instead, I'm thinking of a percentage score or similar e.g. "70% of registration process complete". This may remain the same across 2 or more pages depending on the user's registration route which may be confusing, but probably less so than the progress bar on one page reporting "Step 4 of 7" and the subsequent page reporting something different like "Step 5 of 9".

Would be interested to know how others have dealt with similar issues, or if you have any thoughts on the above suggestion.

Cheers
Joe