WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Table of selectable records

for

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Sep 10, 2018 8:29AM

Hi, if the editable fields appear in a new page or pop up -- one interactive element per row in the focus order would likely be best. A grid which is one tab stop is generally reserved for interactive content such as where you edit directly in the cells.

If you can edit directly in the cells a grid might be an option or activating an edit link might make only that row have cells that appear active and in the focus order. Then you would need a button to accept or close the input for that row.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Isabel Holdsworth
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2018 10:20 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Table of selectable records

Hi all,

One of our pages contains a lengthy sortable table, where each row
represents an editable record from a database.

Does anyone have an example of the best way of making such a table accessible?

It looks visually like a spreadsheet. Should it behave like one from a
keyboard perspective? Should it be possible to traverse the table
using the arrow keys, and only have the Tab key move into and out of
the table itself? Currently the records are clickable but can't
receive focus, which isn't acceptable. But for each cell to be
focusable using the Tab key would prohibit all but the most determined
keyboard users from getting to the important content after the table.

I think that's probably the way to go, plus possibly have a "Select
row" button at the start of each row, but if there's a better way then
this is the place to ask :-)

Thanks as always, Isabel