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Re: Dynamic fields - disabled CSS experience?

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Nov 4, 2016 5:31PM

> I'm also wondering if turning off CSS when using online forms is a likely use case for people with low vision, who have display preferences for a range of needs, or prefer their own style sheets, etc. Or, do people with display preferences choose to not turn off CSS when using online forms due to their complexity?

Some people with low vision create their own stylesheets to layer in customize colors, fonts, spacing, etc. and may want to change content or put content into one column. In most but not all of these situations people are adding their own stylesheet on top of the sites existing stylesheets. It is not a requirement of the current WCAG 2 Level A or AA to work with CSS completely turned off. The current Section 508 standards do imply documents should work without a stylesheet -- but this will soon be replaced by WCAG 2 and many people do not enforce this. Most modern content defines CSS for different breakpoints and content is often hidden until used -- so it's not unreasonable to expect the display and visibility styles on a web page to be respected.

FYI According to the WebAIM low vision survey in 2013 19% of people changed the page colors or style sheets http://webaim.org/projects/lowvisionsurvey/#at

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group 
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of <EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2016 7:11 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Dynamic fields - disabled CSS experience?

When an experience relies on CSS to deliver a dynamic experience, is it reasonable (and/or required by WCAG) to expect an exactly matched experience when CSS is turned off?

For example, in a fieldset, the selection of an option in a drop down, or the selection of a radio button, initiates the list of options presented in a subsequent field. It might even determine the display of a secondary field. CSS drives whether fields are hidden or present.

A tester identified a confusing experience in a complex interaction when CSS was turned off. The secondary field choices were available prior to the first field selection being made. While this doesn't prevent the completion of a task, I realize it's confusing when fields are populated out of order.

Should developers dynamically disable a field vs. just hiding it until the selection in the first field is made?

I'm also wondering if turning off CSS when using online forms is a likely use case for people with low vision, who have display preferences for a range of needs, or prefer their own style sheets, etc. Or, do people with display preferences choose to not turn off CSS when using online forms due to their complexity?

I definitely don't want to deliver something that is confusing. Am trying to gauge the impact.

Just another Friday afternoon scratching my head ...

Thanks!

Judith Blankman