WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: accessible crossword puzzle

for

From: mhysnm1964
Date: Aug 26, 2024 5:00AM

My guidance here is to use the left and right arrow keys to move across the crossword and up and down arrows to move up and down the cells (letter edit fields) for the different questions. The tab and shift tab moves between the questions. The tricky bit is how do indicate with the tab key if you want to answer the questions which are across or down. Some programs I have seen on mobile set the layout only to answer questions in one direction. EG: A radio button is used to answer only the questions going across the page.

Thinking about it, you could use the arrow keys to navigate the whole crossword if the right level of information was presented to the screen reader and braille user and keyboard users. Scenario:

You have a cross word with 4 across and 4 going down questions. To keep things simple. The focus starts on Q1 going across. The right arrow is used. When ever there is an intersection with a question going down. The user is prompted for this fact. Saying something like Q1 down. A hot key could be available to announce the question or you could also ask it automatically. The user then could choose to use the down arrow key to follow that question until the next across question is found.

Visit this site for some ideas how a guy in Australia built one for windows. http://www.omninet.net.au/~irhumph/bgcrossword.htm