WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Another FORM element problem

for

From: Carol Foster
Date: Jan 14, 2003 8:24AM

There is a fairly obscure way to do multiple selects with a keyboard, at
least in Internet Explorer:

Press SHIFT+F8. Then use up and down arrow keys to move between choices and
use the SPACEBAR to select/de-select individual items.

I found this hidden in the JAWS context-sensitive help a while back. This
is so obscure, though, that I agree that checkboxes would be a better
choice.

Carol

Terence de Giere wrote:

> Another form element also appears to have a keyboard input problem. The
> form element SELECT (which creates a drop-down list or selection box),
> has an attribute MULTIPLE which allows multiple selections from the
> list. This is normally done with the keyboard (on Windows) by holding
> down the Ctrl key and selecting the multiple items on the list using a
> mouse. This is not possible with the keyboard alone, and different
> browsers responded differently to keystrokes in my attempts to find a
> way to make multiple selections. It is possible to make adjacent
> selections using the Shift key on graphical browsers, but not
> non-adjacent selections, so this control is not good for accessibility
> if it has multiple selections. I think it should be replaced using a
> group of checkboxes if multiple choices are required.
>
> A select box has a usability value for normal users in that a range of
> selections can take up very little space in a graphical interface when
> space is at a premium, but that does not make any difference if you
> cannot see the page.
>
> Terence de Giere
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
>
> ----
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/

--
Carol Foster, Web Developer
Internet Publishing Group, Information Technology Services
University of Massachusetts, President's Office
phone: (413) 587-2130
fax: (413) 587-2148
mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.umass-its.net/ipg
--



----
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/