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Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus

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From: Dona Patrick
Date: Mar 13, 2019 1:01PM

Me again.

I am checking a website that uses a floating "back to top" element that
never receives keyboard focus. It first appears in the lower right hand
corner of the window when a user begins scrolling down the page or when
tabbing to a link about 1/3 down the page. The element is coded as a <div>
and can be activated with a mouse click or when using a screen reader ENTER
when it is announced. The website is created in Drupal and I think the
element is a Drupal module.

It is behind a firewall so I cannot link to it. But it is similar to the
implementation on this page, which I think is the website of the developer
<https://www.happiness.se/>. https://www.happiness.se/

I have consulted with in-house colleagues who agree that it should fail
either Keyboard or Focus Order success criteria.

Normally when I find issues, I make recommendations and cannot figure out a
recommendation for this. I think it should gain keyboard focus, but when?
It seems redundant to wait until the end of the tabbing order because the
next tab goes the same place as the element but I think it would disrupt
focus order and possibly be confusing to a screen reader user if it were to
gain focus when it appears visually.

Thank you,

Dona