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Re: Usability of ARIA combobox

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From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Nov 28, 2018 4:12AM

Hello,
If you really need to use Aria for a combobox rather than the datalist HTML
element, then I would follow the patterns from AccDC:
http://whatsock.com/tsg/Coding%20Arena/ARIA%20Comboboxes/ARIA%20Comboboxes%20(Native%20Inputs,%20Editable%20and%20Readonly)/demo.htm
and the instructions in the technical style guide for Aria Combobox:
http://whatsock.com/tsg/
Thanks,

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


On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 12:34 PM Catt, James < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi all, I'm looking for some input/opinions from regular screen reader
> users on the usability of ARIA combobox patterns.
>
> When following the ARIA combobox authoring practices (
> https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices-1.1/#combobox), it seems as
> though the information read out by JAWS & NVDA when focusing the text input
> isn't that helpful. NVDA announces that it's a combobox, but doesn't
> provide any further info. JAWS adds that the arrow keys can be used to
> navigate the list, and may announce the expanded state of the listbox
> depending on the implementation. Generally speaking, though, by default
> there doesn't seem to be much info read out to inform the user that there's
> a list of suggestions available-it seems like they would have to be
> familiar with the design pattern and just guess that it's there.
>
> A better implementation seems to the be one used on expedia.ca - they use
> a live region to announce the number of results and tell the user that they
> can use the arrow keys to navigate.
>
> To regular SR users: do you encounter/use comboboxes often in the wild? Do
> you find they're useful and/or intuitive?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> James Catt
> Inclusive Design Consultant, OLB | CIBC Digital
>
> > > > >