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Re: Combobox sufficiently accessibility-supported?

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Oct 9, 2015 7:11PM

On 10/10/2015 00:52, Bryan Garaventa wrote:
>> It is conceivable that this could be made to work though, with the focus nominally remaining on the combobox' input, but VoiceOver/TalkBack allowing the
>> user to swipe up/down (same as cursor up/down) to cycle through the results/suggestions, while swiping left/right would take the user to previous/next
>> item in the sequential focus order.
>
> That is true, and would be helpful if implemented. It doesn't say anything about this in the spec though, so achieving consensus on how it should work is debatable.

I don't believe the spec authoritively defines any user agent behavior
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/ - and while we do have the best practices
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/ these are aimed at web content
developers, and are not meant as a guide for user agent developers.

I don't think there's any particular need for consensus - all the
various ATs don't have to use the same touchscreen gestures (and
indeed, they don't for many things), but what they do need is an
underlying implementation of the concept of activedescendant, and some
means for a user to interact with a widget that uses it. Whether it be
an up/down swipe, or a two- or three-finger swipe, or a more complex
gesture is really up to each AT to decide.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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