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Re: Focus indication for Disabled elements?

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Jun 9, 2017 7:35AM

Can you share with us what issue the user ran into that might have led to that discussion?

Personally, I would suggest working on a better understanding of the circumstances involved in the issue. I say this as a screen reader user--we do not really provide any better solutions to problems in a usability study than anyone else does.

While there might not be anything written in stone that says you must never put keyboard focus on disabled items, it is something that is fairly universal. When something is fairly universal, it tends to become part of user expectations regarding how things should work. I am always a bit hesitant to use a UI design that breaks user expectations--at least not without really good reasons or data.

While putting keyboard focus on disabled items might not end up having a large impact, it is possible that there may be other better options for solving the problem which would not be obvious to someone suggesting solutions off the top of their head during a usability test.

Thanks,
Tim
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Poornima via WebAIM-Forum
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2017 3:47 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Focus indication for Disabled elements?

Hi All,

Is there a best practice for providing visual focus indication for "disabled button"?

While usability study, we heard from a screen reader user that 'the disabled buttons receiving focus will be helpful'. On the other hand, I think this may be an extra effort for sighted keyboard-only users, as they can see the disabled state clearly.

Couple of questions:


1. If this can be coded as virtual (non-visual) focus, will the screen reader identify its state while tabbing?

2. What is the coding techniques to achieve this?

3. Are the sighted keyboard-only users will be fine with providing visual focus to disabled elements - if you hear about this experience from the usability study?

Any thoughts or suggestions around this will be of help.

Thanks,
Poornima.
Accessibility Consultant & Tester.