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Re: Accessible Combo Boxes

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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Mar 1, 2018 1:08PM

Typically JAWS does not have problems with a combo box if it was created using the HTML select element. In fact, I just had to use a couple such combo boxes with JAWS in IE a bit ago and didn't seem to have any problems doing so. If you need to select multiple items in such a combo box, it can be problematic because you need to remember a rather obscure keyboard shortcut to do that--so one of the examples provided previously might work better in that case.

If you are using an HTML select element to create the combo box and having problems using it, you might want to check that the HTML is valid and also figure out if there is any javascript involved that might be altering the behavior of the combo box.

If you are trying to create a combo box from scratch, you should definitely look at the ones that were previously suggested. Using one of those will save you a lot of work and testing and even if they don't do exactly what you need, it will likely make your life easier if you can build off of them.

Thanks,
Tim