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Re: jQuery Datepicker - expected kb behavior?

for

From: Isabel Holdsworth
Date: Oct 15, 2018 6:22AM

When devs are planning the keyboard functionality for a widget, IMO
they often place too much emphasis on how blind users will interact
with the content, and far too little on the experience it offers to
people who use a keyboard but not a screenreader, some of whom will
find it painful or at least frustrating to have to press the Tab key
many times to interact with the widget, or to move past it.

I think there's a compromise to be struck between ensuring that
components are perceivable to AT, and also operable using a keyboard
or other input method.

When a table or grid contains a lot of focusable elements, such as a
calendar with buttons for selecting the date, or a calculator,
sometimes having a single tab stop for the widget and providing arrow
navigation inside it seems like the best compromise. So, for example,
in a calendar, if the focus starts on the first day of the month,
keyboard users can get to the last day by pressing 5 or 6 arrow keys
rather than hitting the Tab key up to 30 times.

One site I worked on had a scientific calculator containing at a guess
around 75 buttons, which keyboard users had to tab through to get past
the tool. That would have been a great candidate for arrow navigation.

Cheers.

On 13/10/2018, glen walker < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Yes, I like the calendar/table too, although a table doesn't imply any
> interactions. I use ctrl+alt+arrow all the time to navigate through the
> cells, but I do that not expecting to select a cell. And that keyboard
> interaction is only for screen reader users. A keyboard only user won't
> have that key sequence (unless the developer implements it that way).
>
> A grid, on the other hand, does imply some kind of interactions, but that's
> typically for editing the contents of a cell and not really for selecting a
> cell.
>
> A calendar is basically a big selection list, but laid out in a grid/table
> pattern. It normally only allows one or two selections for choosing a
> single date or a date range.
>
> The holy grail is to have a keyboard interaction that makes sense for both
> the sighted keyboard user and the screen reader user.
>
> Glen
> > > > >