[WG: Accessibility] Accessibility] Opinion requested regarding the severity of an accessibility issue in Sakai 2x

[LUCIA GRECO]

Hello:
 As a vary comment screen reader user and a trainer of students. I think the
stamen that people know how to use alt down arrow is pure insanity. Remember
that most people are captured in the first 30 seconds. So the first time
they hit this it is over they don't want to use the tool ever again and will
not even know how to go back or fix or even care about what went wrong. Most
users don't know to use that key combo. And if you're a keyboard only user
with say a single key entry. I-E a mouth stick now it's more work again. 
Lastly there is no reason to justify bad coding it should be a on select and
not on change. This goes beyond critical in to show stopper  

Lucia Greco
University of California, Berkeley Disabled Students' Program
Assistive Technologies Specialist
http://attlc.berkeley.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: accessibility-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org
[mailto:accessibility-bounces at collab.sakaiproject.org] On Behalf Of Mary
Stores
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 11:06 AM
To: accessibility at collab.sakaiproject.org
Subject: [WG: Accessibility] Opinion requested regarding the severity of an
accessibility issue in Sakai 2x

Hello,

We are beginning to address the outstanding Jira accessibility issues 
that Gonzalo sent, and we would appreciate your comments on our 
determination of the issue. Below is the issue and our comments.

 From Gonzalo's email:
1.	Select / onchange
A <select /> is used for navigation with an onchage handler that triggers a
form submit [IE 6 and 7]. Keyboard  selection of options becomes 
impossible. Example:
http://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SAK-12820

We believe this issue is not a critical issue as listed because users 
of adaptive technology should be familiar with this issue and aware of 
the "Alt+Down Arrow" key combination. Also, in the "Navigation Tips and 
Tricks" section of the Sakai Help system, the first entry describes how 
to navigate combo boxes using alt+Down Arrow to open the combo box and 
the up- and down-arrow keys to scroll through the options without 
selecting anything.

The proposed solution of adding screen reader only text stating 
something like "Use ALT + arrow keys to select a choice. Then hit 
Enter" before each combo box (<select> element) would likely annoy 
screen reader users, as they would be forced to hear it each time they 
navigated the page.

It seems to be an issue of where to draw the line on the skill level 
expected of users in using their web browsing tools.

Another discussion of the onchange event accessibility issue can be 
found here: 
http://cita.disability.uiuc.edu/html-best-practices/auto/onchange.php. 
This page introduces another possible solution of adding a button that 
must be activated before changes in the combo box take effect. This 
would be a more time consuming fix and possibly create usability issues.

Your input as to whether this accessibility issue should remain 
critical or be changed to minor, and towards possible solutions is 
appreciated.

Thanks,

Mary Stores and Brian Richwine




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