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Select List form control in Onbase Unity Forms

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From: Sharon M Trerise
Date: Sep 14, 2017 4:01PM

I apologize for the long post.

We are starting to use Onbase Unity Forms for creating online forms for many of our administrative functions such as students requesting financial aid, etc. I'm not sure if we are currently using Unity Forms version 15 or 16, but the Select List form control (what I would call a drop-down list), seems to be especially difficult to understand how to navigate when using a screen reader.

The Select List form control has 2 separate components, a text field and a drop down button. Each is read separately by JAWS and VO. The JAWS dialog is as follows assuming, for example, that the form label is "Aid Year".
When the user Tabs into the first component of the Select List form control which visually looks like a text field, JAWS announces: "Aid Year". Edit. Has pop-up. Press down arrow to access the values available for this field or start typing to filter the values. Type of text.

If the user presses down arrow, the list of options visually appears. JAWS repeats the label, Aid Year, but does not move down through the options in the list when the arrow key is pressed again.

If the user presses Tab to move to the second component of the Select List control - the button visually labeled with a down arrow - JAWS repeats the label, Aid Year then says "dropdown button". The user can then press Enter to activate the button which places the cursor back in the textbox component of the Select List control, drops down the list of options and the user can then use the arrow keys to move through and select an option.

My apologies for the long explanation, but I find this non-standard list control very confusing when listening to it with JAWS. Should I be concerned about this or assume that screen reader users will get used to this behavior and not consider it an issue?

VoiceOver reacts differently in that when the focus is in the textbox component of the Select List control, the user can use the arrow keys to move through the list items and make a selection. In this case, the Drop-Down button is not needed and is therefore confusing to have it there.

Thanks for your input.

Sharon

Sharon Trerise | IT Analyst - Accessibility
Information Technology Services
1-234 CST
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York 13244
t 315.443.2143 e <EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> > w its.syr.edu<http://its.syr.edu>;
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY
syr.edu<http://syr.edu>;