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Re: Question on setting default focus on a page...

for

From: Joseph Sherman
Date: May 17, 2016 10:33AM

I think it depends. If it's a page that is a continuation of a form being filled out, and there is no information on the page prior to the input field receiving focus, it seems reasonable to start focus on the field. But if there is information or instruction that is missed or the user will be surprised to find themselves in a form field that would be a problem.


Joseph

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Patrick H. Lauke
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2016 11:40 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question on setting default focus on a page...

On 17/05/2016 15:12, Mike Barlow wrote:
> One of my contacts just brought up something I hadn't heard of before.
> They have a form that they set the default focus to the first input
> field on the form but was told that was a violation because screen
> readers would not read the top of the page if the focus was set into a
> field. Now, I haven't tested the screen reader doing that, but I'm
> pretty sure that's correct (that's pretty much how the "Skip
> Navigation" works). However, I'm not certain if that is really a
> violation or not (don't recall any particular Guideline that addresses that particular issue).

Arguably it's related to 2.4.3 Focus Order https://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/#navigation-mechanisms-focus-order
- and more generally, a user may not be aware that they have been moved somewhere other than the start of the document, so may not be aware that there were other elements/content prior to their position.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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