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Re: Should disabled elements receive tab focus

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Oct 28, 2016 8:24AM

> How does keeping non-actionable controls out of the tab order present a more accurate description of the interface in its present state?

There are a few instances where it could be useful. For example, if I have 5 checkboxes but one of the 5 checkbox is disabled until I change something in the form and I am a screen reader user who happens to be using tab to navigate through the form I could wind up in a situation where I wasn't aware of the 5th checkboxes existence. Yes, screen reader users could go looking for it and yes generally non-interactive items shouldn't be in the tab order -- but asking a person to review the form in browse mode when tab otherwise might be used could trip up some people. I'm not advocating for putting a lot of things in the focus order -- I agree it's an issue -- but there are some situations where it could be helpful.

A similar problem is with the exception of disabled controls not needing to meet contrast requirements. I understand the desire to make the control look disabled by changing the contrast. However, some disabled controls are not readable to people with low vision do to contrast. So the low vision user is forced to try and figure out what in the form is needed to make that disabled control enabled so they can read it only to find out it wasn't something they wanted anyway. If the control is on-screen it should be readable with a minimum level of contrast by all users so they can make the determination of what to do or not do in the form.

Jonathan


Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group 
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (Office)

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2016 10:14 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Should disabled elements receive tab focus

How does keeping non-actionable controls out of the tab order present a more accurate description of the interface in its present state? If I can tab to something then the assumption is that I can do something with it. If I am reading through the interface I can see all of the disabled controls and all of the static/informational content and I can also discover all of the actionable controls. I believe that the reasoning that we have to have non-actionable controls in the tab-ring comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how screen reading software functions. Far too often I have seen test scripts that call for the tester to fail anything that cannot be discovered by tabbing. This usually results in everything getting a tab-index of 0 and a nightmare to use or remediate.

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Thomas Lee McKeithan II
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 6:08 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Should disabled elements receive tab focus

I differ. I believe that disabled buttons/controls should be in the tab order providing the user an accurate representation of what's presented on the page visually.


Respectfully,
Thomas Lee McKeithan II | Optum Technology Solutions Electronic Accessibility Engineer, UX Design Studio (UXDS) MD018, 6220 Old Dobbin Lane, Columbia, MD, 21045, USA

T +1 443-896-0432
M +1 202-276-6437
<EMAIL REMOVED>
www.optum.com
 



-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 12:43 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Should disabled elements receive tab focus

If the button is disabled then it should not be included in the tab ring. Screen reader users can find the button using standard reading controls. Just make sure that it is in the proper location in the reading order for the page.

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Ajay Sharma
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2016 11:39 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Should disabled elements receive tab focus

Hello and Greetings,


Looking for some expert advice on the case where it is desired by the screen reader users that tab focus should go on disabled button and screen reader should announce it's name, role and state which is disabled. But doing so would affect the usability of keyboard only users as the tab focus would land on non interactive element.
There are certain instances where the disabled control gets tab focus both in the case of web and desktop applications, but there is no spec or guideline that directly address to this issue.

So, please share your thoughts on it and I'd greatly appreciate if there is some specs are already there.

Best Regards,
Ajay
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