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Re: Where Does The Idea Screen Reader Users Use Tab for Main Navigation Come From?

for

From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Oct 11, 2018 10:23AM

Hello,

There was a talk on charts and graphs that showed the tester only using the
tab key to move through the chart:

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayl2ue9vIFc&list=PLn7dsvRdQEfEnBxpVztmJ8KCKNJ_P-hR6
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayl2ue9vIFc&list=PLn7dsvRdQEfEnBxpVztmJ8KCKNJ_P-hR6>*

I hope that up and down arrow keys would work in this case!



Yes, second on the custom rolled interfaces. There is a place in
non-semantic interfaces for limiting a screen reader to edit mode, but it's
hard to justify.



In Google docs, the only way to navigate through tables is with the tab key.



Developers try so hard to make sure all these elements are accessible with
the tab key, but frankly it doesn't lead to a good UX. For example, I would
love to be able to press tab on an interface and have it switch tabs
without making me go through all the links on the page. But rather than
focusing on improving the UX of the whole keyboard, developers try and use
a single key to do all navigation.



NVDA just told everyone they collect usage data when they use NVDA, I would
love to see if they have numbers on how much tab is used vs other keys.

Thanks,


Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;


On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 8:10 AM Julie Romanowski <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> As I mentioned in my earlier reply, I know JAWS users who use the tab key
> along with other key commands to navigate web pages. There are several
> blind and limited vision JAWS users (from novice to power user) at my
> company, and as an accessibility specialist, I have worked with every one
> of them at one time or another. Every single one of them used the tab key
> to navigate through actionable elements on the screen (not just form
> elements).
>
> There are a multitude of ways screen reader users can navigate web pages,
> and as an accessibility specialist, I do my best to test as many of those
> ways as possible, including using the tab key. In addition, I've run into
> instances where tab key behavior worked as expected in keyboard-only
> testing, but failed in screen reader testing (e.g., unable to tab to links
> or form elements). There have also been a couple of instances where a
> customer, who was a screen reader user, contacted us to report issues with
> tabbing to actionable items on pages in our dotcom site, which were missed
> because the testers didn't try tabbing through all actionable items in
> their screen reader testing.
>
> I agree that only using the tab key to navigate webpages when doing screen
> reader testing is a rookie mistake. However, ignoring the tab key or only
> using it to navigate form controls when doing screen reader testing is also
> a mistake and can cause the tester to miss some potentially serious
> accessibility issues.
>
>
>