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Re: Misuse of TabIndex 0

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From: Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Date: Nov 5, 2015 9:38AM

Far more people than just screen reader users use tab navigation to move through a form. Adding unneeded tab stops to make everything on the form readable through the tab ring does a disservice to those users and provides screen reader users and others. It implicitly implies that all of the tab-able objects have a role of active. Far better to use aria-labelledby and aria-described by to make sure that critical information is not lost to a screen reader user. See comments on this thread from Steve Faulkner and Paul Adam.

Modern screen reader software has an auto forms mode allowing the use of reading keys to navigate a form rather than just tabbing through. I am not saying that you would never use tab-index of 0 on a static object. There may be a rare use case when it is the only way to make an object accessible. But if the only purpose of tab-index 0 is to make sure that a screen reader user cannot avoid reading the instructions then you are denying them the same opportunity that anyone else has to ignore the instructions. It may be that they have already filled out the form 10 times before and don't need to read the instructions again.

Much better form design is to use headings to define sections of a form and provide the instructions for each section immediately after the heading and before the fields start. Screen reader users will receive information about the number of headings when the form opens and will know that there are multiple sections. I could even see using aria-describedby or aria-label on the last field in a section to notify a screen reader user that this is the end of the section. This would be unobtrusive for other users and would not adversely impact the tab-order or the implicit roles of the objects in the form.

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission
Civil Rights Office