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Re: How do users of physical Assistive Technologies accessscreen reader shortcuts?

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From: JP Jamous
Date: Oct 6, 2016 5:07AM

Dan,

One easy answer from my experience as a developer and WCAG expert. Do not touch the tabindex unless it is really necessary.

Let the browser handle this based on the DOM structure. You'd make your life and the life of your users better.

I know too many sighted developers do not get this. Some use a value of 0 and others -1. Bottom line, they are all unnecessary.

I just modified a chat app UI for a third-party that services us. Their code was terrible, I have no idea how screen readers were able to make heads and tails out of it. Every Div had a tabindex, role, and that's all they used.no P elements, headings nothing. All divs. It was horrible. The most terrible code I have ever touched in 8 years.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Dan Smith
Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2016 9:40 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] How do users of physical Assistive Technologies access screen reader shortcuts?

I'm in the process of educating some developers about why it's better to let screen reader users leverage the shortcuts built into their screen reader, than it is to put a tab index on everything. But I wondered, how do folks access keyboard shortcuts that use modifier keys, if they are using a mouth stick, a switch, or a sip and puff controller?

Do you have links to some documentation or videos?

Many thanks,
Dan