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Re: Danger! Testing Accessibility with real people — Medium

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: May 17, 2016 2:20AM

Bryan Garaventa wrote:

> The word "tab" actually has been around for many years to indicate this
> type of functionality, and this is what ARIA Tabs map to in the
> accessibility API. So it's not just a name, but an actual role mapping in
> the accessibility tree.
>

Everything you wrote is true, but from a developer point of view.

From a user point of view tab is a character, a key, and a widget, and if
you land on ARIA-tabs for the first time (or the 10th time if you never
worked out what it is), it will be a foreign concept.

I have a feeling it's too late to re-name tabs, but what would a good hint
be? (Something that the website, or perhaps the user-agent could add.)
Something generic enough to make sense across screenreaders (i.e. not exact
keys).

Assuming the initial announcement for a non-selected tab is as it is now:"
tabname, tab, 2 of 3", could we use aria-describedby to add "select to
change the controlled content"?

Even "controlled content" (the Jaws hint) is not a great term, but I can't
think of a better one at the moment. Using the term "link" would not be
right as the focus isn't moved when you use it, and page/sub-page are also
vague.

Cheers,

-Alastair