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Re: Combobox sufficiently accessibility-supported?

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Oct 10, 2015 3:23PM

On 10/10/2015 20:49, _mallory wrote:
> Question: as a web developer, if I listen for a Touch event on my
> combobox, similar to checking for a keyup (and then checking which
> keys) on a control, can I determine that someone touched the screen?

Yes, with some caveats. If there is also an AT running, some touch
interactions may be intercepted by the AT and never make it to the
browser/fire a JS event. It will also depend how a user reaches the
combobox - if for instance we're talking about an iOS device with
VoiceOver running, and the user navigated to the combobox, only a
"focus" event would be fired (even if using touch-to-explore) - see
http://patrickhlauke.github.io/touch/tests/results/#mobile-tablet-touchscreen-assistive-technology-events
(which, it has to be noted, is based on tests carried out with a
<button>, rather than an <input> from a combobox).

> Or can I get false touchWhatevers being fired by a mouse or kb because
> the device+browser also supports touch?

In the case of phones/tablets with a paired mouse/keyboard, this varies
depending on OS/browser - in some cases, a mouse will behave exactly
like a touch, firing touch events first, followed by compatibility mouse
events and click - see
http://patrickhlauke.github.io/touch/tests/results/#mobile-tablet-keyboard-mouse-events.
For paired keyboards, this is not the case though.

For desktop/laptop with a touchscreen (e.g. Surface 3 etc), the answer
is a straight no - mouse and keyboard will behave as they always did,
and no false touch events will be triggered.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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