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selecting ARIA Tabs and Windows screen readers

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From: Jennifer Sutton
Date: May 22, 2015 6:49PM

Greetings, WebAIM:

I'm testing some ARIA tabs, and I am getting different behavior when
using JFW 15 and IE 11 and JFW 15 and FF 36.

I've seen so many different implementations of ARIA tabs that I need
to confirm my expectations.


Before everyone says: "just use NVDA," I'm about to test that, too,
but end-users are likely to be using JFW, so I need to test with that.

I'm getting different results with these combinations, and I'm not
sure whether it's the code or the AT. So . . .

Does anyone have a sample of ARIA Tabs that they feel is implemented
correctly, so I can compare that with my test case?

I'm imagining VO for the Mac would function similarly; I'm only
concerned about the desktop experience.

This is a very simple set of two ARIA tabs only. I don't want lists
or headings involved, if possible.


I can hear that a tab is initially selected by default (and
identified as such), and when I hit enter on the second one, I go
into forms mode. And while I can then use up and down arros to move
between the two, when I use escape to exit forms mode (when on the
tab I want to choose), sometimes it shows as selected, and sometimes
it doesn't. And I don't get selection feedback when in forms mode
and moving between the two tabs. I'd think JFW should be able to
report that, but perhaps I'm incorrect.

I believe these are vertical tabs, so using up and down arrow (rather
than right and left for horizontal ones) does seem correct in this case.

I've got plenty of examples of code; it's confirmation of screen
reader user expectations I need. And maybe there are browser issues I
need to watch out for, but ARIA tabs have been around for a long
time, so I'm hoping not.

When these two tabs are tested with keyboard-only (no screen reader),
they do operate correctly.

Thanks, and happy long weekend to all in the U.S.

Best,
Jennifer