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Re: Clickable maps

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From: Steve Green
Date: Mar 30, 2023 3:48PM

Without seeing the map I would be inclined to recommend the following:

The map should be before the Section 1 information.

Headings sound good. When I have groups of components like a map or an image gallery, I usually put role=group and a suitable aria-label attribute because it lets screen reader users know what the group is as soon as they encounter it. It also announces when they are leaving the group or if they navigate backwards into it.

There should definitely be instructions. Some people will want to hide them on the basis that only screen reader users will need them, but I would argue that voice recognition software users may not be aware of the functionality if there are no instructions.

Also, WCAG's Labels and Instructions SC doesn't contain an exemption that allows hiding instructions from people who supposedly don't need them. The provision of visible instructions also lets everyone know what functionality the page does not have. I have quite often spent time trying to do things that are not do-able, because I assumed a feature would be present when it isn't.

I would be inclined to use buttons and keep the focus on them after they have been operated. This allows a sighted keyboard user to navigate through the map operating each button in turn. In the absence of any research into user needs and use cases, I would only use jump links if I thought users will only want to view the information for one county.

I can see why a live region was used to announce all the new information, but it could be problematic unless it's short. We recently discussed how some screen readers stack multiple alerts, whereas others truncate them when a new one occurs. You would need to do some thorough testing to understand the behaviour. Some user testing would be good because it's always interesting to see how real people use a website - they sometimes do things you would never expect.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd