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From: Dona Patrick
Date: Wed, Mar 13 2019 1:01PM
Subject: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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Me again.

I am checking a website that uses a floating "back to top" element that
never receives keyboard focus. It first appears in the lower right hand
corner of the window when a user begins scrolling down the page or when
tabbing to a link about 1/3 down the page. The element is coded as a <div>
and can be activated with a mouse click or when using a screen reader ENTER
when it is announced. The website is created in Drupal and I think the
element is a Drupal module.

It is behind a firewall so I cannot link to it. But it is similar to the
implementation on this page, which I think is the website of the developer
<https://www.happiness.se/>. https://www.happiness.se/

I have consulted with in-house colleagues who agree that it should fail
either Keyboard or Focus Order success criteria.

Normally when I find issues, I make recommendations and cannot figure out a
recommendation for this. I think it should gain keyboard focus, but when?
It seems redundant to wait until the end of the tabbing order because the
next tab goes the same place as the element but I think it would disrupt
focus order and possibly be confusing to a screen reader user if it were to
gain focus when it appears visually.

Thank you,

Dona

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Wed, Mar 13 2019 1:47PM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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Proficient keyboard users can already "back to top" with Ctrl+Home, so
I'd say this would only be a nice-to-have, not an absolute necessity.
I'd keep it at the end of the document.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke

From: glen walker
Date: Wed, Mar 13 2019 4:46PM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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I'm not sure it fails either 2.1.1 or 2.4.3.

2.1.1 says "All *functionality *of the content is operable through a
keyboard interface..." It doesn't say I have to be able to interact with
that specific element with a keyboard but that the *function of that
element *has to be available to a keyboard user. Or at least that's how I
read it. The function of the "back to top" element is to move you to the
top of the page. I use the Home/End keys all the time. That's the same
"functionality" as the "back to top" element so I don't think that element
has to be keyboard focusable.

2.4.3 says "...focusable components receive focus in an order that
preserves meaning and operability." Because of 2.1.1, that element doesn't
need to receive focus (at least in my opinion), and if it doesn't receive
focus, it's not a "focusable component" and thus 2.4.3 doesn't apply.

Perhaps I'm too liberal on my interpretation but I wouldn't flag that
element as a failure.

That doesn't mean you can't recommend that the element should receive focus
and have a keyboard handler (it's currently only listening for a mouse
click), but I don't think it should be a requirement.

Glen

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Wed, Mar 13 2019 5:08PM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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On 13/03/2019 22:46, glen walker wrote:
> I'm not sure it fails either 2.1.1 or 2.4.3.
[...]
> Perhaps I'm too liberal on my interpretation but I wouldn't flag that
> element as a failure.

I concur, FWIW. Not a failure, and arguably not needed at all for
keyboard users.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke

From: Dona Patrick
Date: Wed, Mar 13 2019 5:15PM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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Thanks for the replies. Based on your comments I will demote the issue.

As a side note, I tried CTRL+HOME and, while it visually takes me to the
top, when I use my TAB key directly after pressing CTRL+HOME focus remains
where I was before pressing CTRL+HOME.

Am I doing something incorrectly?

Thanks again for your help.

Dons

On Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 7:08 PM Patrick H. Lauke < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:

> On 13/03/2019 22:46, glen walker wrote:
> > I'm not sure it fails either 2.1.1 or 2.4.3.
> [...]
> > Perhaps I'm too liberal on my interpretation but I wouldn't flag that
> > element as a failure.
>
> I concur, FWIW. Not a failure, and arguably not needed at all for
> keyboard users.
>
> P
> --
> Patrick H. Lauke
>
> www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
> http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
> twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke
> > > > >

From: Mallory
Date: Fri, Mar 15 2019 4:52PM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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I just use the Home key. It may differ between OSes. But yes, those just move the view. To get my focus up there too, Ctrl-L (apparently Ctrl-D works as well but I never learned it) to get to the address bar and start moving from there has been my lifesaver.

cheers,
_mallory

On Thu, Mar 14, 2019, at 12:16 AM, Dona Patrick wrote:
> Thanks for the replies. Based on your comments I will demote the issue.
>
> As a side note, I tried CTRL+HOME and, while it visually takes me to the
> top, when I use my TAB key directly after pressing CTRL+HOME focus remains
> where I was before pressing CTRL+HOME.
>
> Am I doing something incorrectly?
>
> Thanks again for your help.
>
> Dons

From: Philip Kiff
Date: Sat, Mar 16 2019 10:22AM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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On 2019-03-15 18:52, Mallory wrote:
> I just use the Home key. It may differ between OSes. But yes, those just move the view. To get my focus up there too, Ctrl-L (apparently Ctrl-D works as well but I never learned it) to get to the address bar and start moving from there has been my lifesaver.

I think you mean ALT-D, not CTRL-D, as an alternative shortcut to the
address bar.

And I think that historically it may be that ALT-D comes from Windows
File Explorer, and CTRL-L comes from various browsers. And only in more
recent iterations have both shortcuts worked on both types of windows in
MS Windows. Maybe?

Phil.

Philip Kiff
D4K Communications

From: Isabel Holdsworth
Date: Fri, Mar 22 2019 9:52AM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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"Back to top" doesn't necessarily mean the top of the page. It could
mean the top of the main content, in which case IMO the "Back to top"
button should be focusable, especially if there's a lot of interactive
elements in the main content. If not, there's no easy way for keyboard
users to get the focus back to where that button would presumably
position it.

Cheers, Isabel

On 16/03/2019, Philip Kiff < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> On 2019-03-15 18:52, Mallory wrote:
>> I just use the Home key. It may differ between OSes. But yes, those just
>> move the view. To get my focus up there too, Ctrl-L (apparently Ctrl-D
>> works as well but I never learned it) to get to the address bar and start
>> moving from there has been my lifesaver.
>
> I think you mean ALT-D, not CTRL-D, as an alternative shortcut to the
> address bar.
>
> And I think that historically it may be that ALT-D comes from Windows
> File Explorer, and CTRL-L comes from various browsers. And only in more
> recent iterations have both shortcuts worked on both types of windows in
> MS Windows. Maybe?
>
> Phil.
>
> Philip Kiff
> D4K Communications
>
> > > > >

From: glen walker
Date: Fri, Mar 22 2019 10:20AM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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That's a good point. However, since most pages don't have a "back to top"
feature, I don't rely on it. Depending on the browser and screen reader
combination, I just rely on home or ctrl+home, and if that doesn't move my
focus, I use alt+d to move the focus to the address bar and start tabbing
from there. If there is a big header or nav area, then I pray for a skip
link so I can get back to main. I consider that a real world situation
having to work around an inaccessible site. (Although in this case, it's
not literally inaccessible because I can access it from the keyboard. I
just might have to hit tab a zillion times to get back to where I need to
go. So it's accessible but not friendly.)

If "back to top" were the last element in the DOM and I could get my
keyboard focus to it, the next tab stop (ignoring the browser's chrome
[address bar, search field, other focusable items]) would take me to the
first focusable element on the page (hopefully a skip nav) so the "back to
top" element might not save me much time.

Since I usually have plenty of other more serious inaccessible issues to
address, I make "back to top" a low priority thing.

On Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 9:52 AM Isabel Holdsworth < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:

> "Back to top" doesn't necessarily mean the top of the page. It could
> mean the top of the main content, in which case IMO the "Back to top"
> button should be focusable, especially if there's a lot of interactive
> elements in the main content. If not, there's no easy way for keyboard
> users to get the focus back to where that button would presumably
> position it.
>
> Cheers, Isabel
>
>

From: Barry Hill
Date: Fri, Mar 29 2019 1:50AM
Subject: Re: Floating "back to top" element -- no keyboard focus
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A person using a switch controller would not be able to access a floating
'~Back to top', so I would agree to have it at the bottom of the document.

Cheers

Barry