WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Microsoft Word Forms

for

From: Karlen Communications
Date: Jun 26, 2019 1:08PM

I just took a really quick look at Microsoft Forms which apparently I have access to with my Office 365 subscription. It wants to open in Edge by default so some of the functionality still isn't working with JAWS. However, once I copied the URL into IE 11, I was able to access the tools in much the same way as Sway works. I was able to create a form, add an image to it and create a series of radio buttons with a question and make the question required. The down side is that submissions will be sent to my Microsoft Account e-mail.

I've tried using the ActiveX form controls to create a form but can't find them again using JAWS to tell which parts of the form should be protected and which ones shouldn't. I also, in recent months, don't seem to have access to the ToolTips that are supposed to be in the Status bar and only hear the word "edit" in a text based AdctiveX form control or "checkbox" which isn't helpful.

I don't use the Content Controls because they still aren't accessible and any improvements to them (which I have seen in terms of accessibility) are not backward compatible. They still are, to some extent, keyboard traps or what happens is that I am not told I am entering one and then aren't often able to use standard reading and navigation keyboard commands in them without knowing why. I still have to force my screen reader to exit them and often land somewhere else in the document and have to find my way back to where I was...getting snagged in the Content Control again...so you see the problem. 😊

I tend to create a form template in Word and then create a PDF form but I have some functional vision and forms in Acrobat are a visual mouse driven activity.

For those of us who use screen readers, forms are still difficult to create.

Cheers, Karen