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Re: Combo Box Displays incomplete items - content or accessibility issue?

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From: Steve Green
Date: Nov 27, 2017 2:37PM

In addition to the issues that others have reported, there are a number of other ways in which these comboboxes do not behave like native ones, such as:

a. If the list of options has been opened, pressing the Tab key closes the list as expected but the focus does not move to the next focusable element.

b. If a key is pressed, the focus correctly moves to the first instance of an option that starts with that character. However, if the same key is pressed again, the focus does not move to the next instance of an option that starts with that character. This is a behaviour I use a lot, because pressing the "u" key four times is the fastest way to get to United Kingdom in most Language comboboxes.

I have tested dozens of so-called accessible comboboxes and have not found a single one that replicates all the behaviours of a native element and is fully accessible. Most don't even come close, even when very good development teams have put in a lot of effort, so the chance of your developers achieving this is somewhere close to zero.

Until we find a good accessible design pattern, I recommend simply applying styling to native comboboxes and accept the fact that they will look different in some browsers. Unsurprisingly, I get a lot of push-back from clients over this, but it's all you can do if WCAG compliance is essential.

Jim mentioned that he could not open the comboboxes using keyboard controls - in fact the spacebar opens them, at least it does in Chrome and Internet Explorer 11. It also opens native comboboxes, which is a behaviour I was not aware of. Curiously, pressing it again does not close native comboboxes, although it does close them on the CIHI website.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd