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Re: Screen reader Forms Mode as Only Interaction Method?

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From: JP Jamous
Date: Mar 3, 2017 7:18AM

My 2 cents to this approach is that it is more of a UX convenience. I am big on UX improvement, because with proper semantic and ARIA, there is no reason why a form cannot be accessible without jumping out of forms mode.

Yes, some forms might have a large paragraph or more to provide instructions. Something like that is unavoidable However, KISS is always my preferred approach. Keep it simple, get the user to where he or she needs to be and gain that user as a future customer or loyal one.

We live in a fast world and getting something ordered or filled out should be as painless as possible. Customers appreciate that whether they have a sensory disability or not. Am I going to like or dislike someone making my life easier? Obviously like. That is why car manufacturers have different vehicles for different types of shoppers. A prime example, is the Nissan Pathfinder.

It used to be the truck or jeep to buy. Way high above the ground, can tow and has a great 3.5L engine in it. That was in the 90's. Now, it is a car chassis and only 7 inches above the ground. Its older fans walked away, but other shoppers made it the way it is now.

Families that go on long trips want more room, the power to tow a boat or other things and a smooth luxurious vehicle. That's what they have. I bought it for my wife, because she does not like high vehicles; she drives the speed limit and she has no desire in off roading. We have so much room for my guide dog and our friends and family with all the luxury and bells and whistles. For us it keeps my wife happy, while it keeps me happy as I can hook a boat in the future to it and can feel that power of a 3.5L engine. On the other hand, the Armata is now made for old Pathfinder lovers.

I know that might have sounded as if I diverted from the original thought, but I did not. Who is my primary audience, should be the question any PM should ask while in the requirement phase of the SDLC. Once those types of audiences are determined, it is a matter of having a happy medium amongst them.

I use that in my auditing as well. Who are the audiences of this site and how can I find a happy medium between all of them? I then apply that in my remediation with WCAG 2.0 in mind.

I just wanted to give my humble opinion as I have noticed that some auditors or developers tend to complicate their lives by thinking too much into it. We are not network administrators to worry about security and other factors. Our job is much simpler. It only gets complex when multiple disabilities have to be taken in consideration. That is why keeping it simple allows us to make our lives easier, while still provide the proper accessibility that customers should have.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Michael Bullis
Sent: Friday, March 3, 2017 7:38 AM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List' < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Screenreader Forms Mode as Only Interaction Method?

I typically start in forms mode but often find that fields are not labeled clearly or correctly so jump out of forms mode to see the title of the form which is usually determinable and then fill in the information for that field.

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Dan Holbrook
Sent: Thursday, March 2, 2017 1:36 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Screenreader Forms Mode as Only Interaction Method?

This was touched upon in the previous thread "Forms, forms mode and static text interaction with Jaws" but forms mode requires extra care to be taken in order to make sure certain information (e.g. disabled fields with data, field instructions, legal disclaimers) is read.

In our testing of forms right now (NVDA and JAWS) we browse to the form, enter data in the first field, then tab through the form, which requires developers to attempt to make forms fully accessible to users who use tabbing alone for form navigation.

I have talked to a few people who use browse mode to go through the form and used forms mode only for entry, which would make this extra work unnecessary. I'd like to see if there is a consensus or trend around how screen reader users navigate forms: do you tab through fields once in a form (remaining in forms mode) or do you navigate forms with a combination of forms mode and browsing?

*Dan Holbrook**QA Engineer and Co-President <http://www.nerdery.com/copresident>;**The
Nerdery**http://www.nerdery.com/people#hz <http://www.nerdery.com/Xx>;*