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Re: Misuse of TabIndex 0

for

From: Paul J. Adam
Date: Nov 4, 2015 12:53PM

Need a specific example to say how I'd make it accessible but I've never seen a form with a set of text instructions that needed to be programmatically associated with every input. Other than maybe "All fields marked * are required" but that would be handled with aria-required=true and the * inside the label.

If the instructions are say a data table then the user would be expected to manually read the data table as you could not programmatically associate an entire table with an input. You could maybe connect the table's caption element to the input and the user would hear the table's title spoken when tabbing into that input.

I see tabindex=0 on instructional text more as an accessibility misunderstanding/"old-school hack" where the person implanting the accessibility fix thinks that screen reader users only TAB through everything and don't use linear navigation or quick navigation keys.

Paul J. Adam
Accessibility Evangelist
www.deque.com

> On Nov 4, 2015, at 12:09 PM, Jared Smith < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Paul J. Adam wrote:
>> That's why input instructions and error messages must be programmatically associated with the inputs.
>
> What if the instructions are relevant to numerous inputs? Should they
> be associated to all of them? This would be burdensome. Only the first
> one? This would not really be accurate.
>
> And what if the instructions include semantics or functional elements
> which would be lost when attached as a label or description?
>
> I fully agree that tabindex=0 is a bad solution, but it's sometimes
> used to address problems for which there isn't a good solution.
>
> Jared
> > > >