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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