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Thread: keeping jaws focus on a link after page load
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From: Nick Allan
Date: Sun, Jun 17 2018 9:31PM
Subject: keeping jaws focus on a link after page load
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Hi all
I've got a situation where I have a link that causes a new browser window to open, on that window are 2 frames one showing search results. Keyboard focus automatically goes to the link for the first search result in the 2nd frame, but because it's a new page load, Jaws automatically starts reading, which then moves the focus off that first search result if you don't press the ctrl key quickly enough to stop jaws reading.
Other than modifying the jaws configuration to not automatically start reading on page load. Does anyone have any suggestions on what could be done here to stop jaws automatically reading and moving the focus?
Nick
Nick Allan
Access Technology Technical Lead
Business Transformation
Vision Australia
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From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Tue, Jun 19 2018 6:58AM
Subject: Re: keeping jaws focus on a link after page load
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I don't think there is anything you can do from the application/site side of things to avoid JAWS doing that short of setting a javascript timer when the page loads and having it set the focus back to the element.
Something like:
// Trigger the focus event 500 ms after the timer starts.
Window.setTimeout(() => {
Document.querySelector("[autofocus]");
}, 500);
I haven't tested that code so it might not work. Also, this code assumes the element that receives focus is using the autofocus element.
However, I'm not sure I would use the code in a page even if it works. You already probably know this, but this seems to me like an intentional screen reader feature. I'm always reluctant to do something that interferes with a screen readers intentional behaviours since it alters the behavior that the screen reader user likely expects.
Thanks,
Tim
From: Nick Allan
Date: Wed, Jun 20 2018 4:53AM
Subject: Re: keeping jaws focus on a link after page load
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Thanks, I actually did try the setTimeout but I suspect if you don't wait long enough for jaws to actually stop speaking it continues to adjust the keyboard focus.
I think I'll probably just tell our users when these search screens popup that they should just press ctrl to stop speech straight away. If you do that, the focus does set correctly.
Nick
From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Wed, Jun 20 2018 6:25AM
Subject: Re: keeping jaws focus on a link after page load
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That sounds like a better approach to me. I also believe it is possible to change the JAWS settings so it doesn't automatically start reading the page contents. If that is the case, you might also want to share that with them.I wonder if it would be useful to provide FreedomScientific with a suggestion to just notify the user that the new page has loaded instead of automatically start reading the page. Of course, that probably is only a good suggestion if my assumption is correct that the feature was originally introduced to let the user know that the new page has been loaded.