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Re: Combobox: what should the Esc key do?

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Apr 10, 2018 8:08AM

Lynn

Weird, I thought the screen reader did not intercept the escape key in
forms/application mode if the page does something with it. A screen
reader should be in forms mode when user navigates inside an input
field or in an element with role="combobox" or "listbox".
Now that you mention it, I think this is an NVDA bug. I don't thin
jaws exhibits this behavior.
Well, easy to find out.




On 4/10/18, Lynn Holdsworth < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm creating a combobox widget, and wonder what's the most appropriate
> behaviour for the Esc key when using a screenreader?
>
> On its own, when the Esc key is pressed the textbox is left with the
> value the user typed into it, and the listbox that dropped down below
> it disappears.
>
> When using JAWS or NVDA, the screenreader grabs the Esc key and
> interprets it as an instruction to leave forms mode. Pressing Esc a
> second time triggers the combobox's standard behaviour. I don't feel
> that this is intuitive for the user.
>
> Would it be better if this could work the other way round: pressing
> Esc the first time hides the dropdown list, and a second press takes
> the screenreader out of forms mode? I think I could achieve this by
> adding an application role to the wrapping div and then removing it
> once the Esc key has been pressed.
>
> I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this.
>
> Cheers, Lynn
> > > > >


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