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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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