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Thread: defining focus
Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)
From: Dave Ferrick
Date: Wed, Mar 12 2003 10:30AM
Subject: defining focus
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I hope I'm not prematurely asking the list about this.
Are there any particular issues with setting focus onto a form field with
Javascript? It feels like an undesiable practice to me just by its very
nature, but I'd like to hear your thoughts as well. If you know of any
documentation explaing either pro on con, that'd be a great help as well.
Thanks in advance for your time.
Dave Ferrick
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From: Jared Smith
Date: Wed, Mar 12 2003 2:26PM
Subject: Re: defining focus
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Dave-
My opinion would be to be very careful with its use, as users
anticipate the focus to begin at the top of the document. You would
probably never want to change focus at any time except when the page
is loaded. However, on sites like http://www.google.com/, where the
focus is initially set to the search text field, I would think that
this might be a good practice. Any user constrained to using the
keyboard, including screen reader users, would probably find this
useful, because they don't have to tab through the several navigation
items just to type in a search term. I personally like the feature, as
it saves me a mouse click or 5 presses of the TAB key. This approach,
though, might be slightly confusing to someone first coming to the
site, but I don't think it limits the accessibility of the page.
Still, a search engine or perhaps a chat program are about the only
cases where I could personally think setting the focus could be
justified.
You would definitely want to avoid changing focus based on some user
event, such as onMouseOver or onFocus.
Jared Smith
WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind)
Center for Persons with Disabilities
Utah State University
***************
On Wednesday, March 12, 2003 you sent:
DF> I hope I'm not prematurely asking the list about this.
DF> Are there any particular issues with setting focus onto a form field with
DF> Javascript? It feels like an undesiable practice to me just by its very
DF> nature, but I'd like to hear your thoughts as well. If you know of any
DF> documentation explaing either pro on con, that'd be a great help as well.
DF> Thanks in advance for your time.
DF> Dave Ferrick
DF> ----
DF> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or view list archives,
DF> visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
***************
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From: Paul Bohman
Date: Wed, Mar 12 2003 2:40PM
Subject: RE: defining focus
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I was in the middle of typing my response when Jared posted his. We ended up
saying almost exactly the same thing (even using the same example), but I
thought I'd post my comments anyway, just to confirm what he said:
If the page loads quickly, and if there is a good reason to put the focus in
a form element, then this can be a good thing. For example, www.google.com.
This page loads quickly, and I'd guess that 99% percent of the people who go
to that page go there for the purpose of typing in a query. In this case, I
think it makes sense.
People who use the keyboard or people that use screen readers will benefit
from this situation in about the same way that a non-disabled person will.
However, if the page takes a while to load, it is possible that the person
could start navigating through the page before the page is through loading,
and then, when the page is fully loaded, the focus could suddenly jump from
where the user would like to be over to the place that the programmer wants
them to be. This has happened to me on more than a few ocassions, and it is
a bit annoying. The disorientation can be even a little bit worse for users
of screen readers.
I guess you could say that my opinion is that it depends--but it isn't a
decision to take lightly.
Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind)
www.webaim.org
Center for Persons with Disabilities
www.cpd.usu.edu
Utah State University
www.usu.edu
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From: Derek Featherstone
Date: Wed, Mar 12 2003 2:54PM
Subject: RE: defining focus
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Dave wrote:
> Are there any particular issues with setting focus onto a
> form field with Javascript? It feels like an undesiable
> practice to me just by its very nature, but I'd like to hear
> your thoughts as well. If you know of any documentation
> explaing either pro on con, that'd be a great help as well.
I've actually come to expect 95% of sites not to set focus on the relevant
form fields when the page loads.
I am speaking as a "power user" who rarely removes my hands from the
keyboard to use the mouse. I generally expect that when a page loads, I can
hit tab once and I'm in my browser's address bar. Hit it twice and I'm in my
Google search bar that allows me to search the entire web, or within the
site. I would expect that users of assistive technology would be similar
power users with their web clients and "tools" as well.
Taking into account audience and whether or not they are likely to be power
users is something to be considered carefully -- on a recent app, we know
the type of user that is using the functionality, so we included it in that
specific administration section of the site. On many other places on the
site, we have not defined the focus onload.
Heh. That was a really long way of saying "it depends". ;)
Best regards,
Derek.
--
Derek Featherstone = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Further Ahead Inc.
phone: 613.599.9784;
toll-free: 1.866.932.4878 (North America)
Web Development: http://www.furtherahead.com
Training and Learning: http://www.completelearning.com
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From: Gerard Corboz
Date: Wed, Mar 12 2003 3:25PM
Subject: Accessibility and off the shelf electronic form solutions
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The company I work for specialises in form design ranging from paper through
to html forms and off the shelf electronic forms.
The vast majority of the discussion on Webaim focuses on the accessibility
of web pages, web apps, etc etc.
Does anyone out there have some experience or knowledge of accessibility
issues with off the shelf eform solutions?
I have found that there a number of software vendors that claim their
solution is accessible and to a certain extent they are but invariably they
are very unusable.
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Gerard Corboz
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Perform
Information Design Solutions
ph: 6214 0968
fax: 6214 0964
mobile: 0402 236 358
http://www.perform.net.au
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