Re: UAIG and ARIA 1.1 spec issues regarding Combobox?

Bryan
RE your first point.
I agree with the problem of value not being set. This is a problem
with comboboxes and screen readers.
You hardly ever see the value of a combobox in screen reader browse
mode, you actually have to activate it to bring up the listbox to see
which value is selected.
aria-activedescendant could be the solution, if it is allowed to point
to a list that has been hidden (just like aria-labelledby does).
This would only work if the listbox is hidden using CSS, would not
work if it is actually removed altogether from the dom.

Is there any way to treat an input field with a value )when list is
not visible) as a text input, i.e. expose its value via the value
property?
When listbox is closed:
<input type="textbox" role="combobox" size="30" value="value from listbox">
When open
<input type="textbox" role="combobox" size="30" value =target of
active descendant element>
Thanks
-Birkir



On 6/30/15, Bryan Garaventa <bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> There are a few things that I wished to ask about regarding the
> accessibility tree mappings and usage of role=combobox, that appear to be
> unclear.
>
> Firstly, within the accessibility tree mappings, it appears that the only
> property values for a Combobox are Name and Description, but there is no way
> of setting Value.
>
> If you are using a native input element, you get the Value property for
> free, but if you create a simulated combobox using a span or div element,
> you cannot set a Value property value for the Combobox.
>
> You can see this by comparing this first editable combobox at
> http://whatsock.com/tsg/Coding%20Arena/ARIA%20Comboboxes/ARIA%20Comboboxes%20(Native%20Inputs,%20Editable%20with%20Substring%20Match)/demo.htm
>
> With this second simulated Combobox using a span element at
> http://whatsock.com/tsg/Coding%20Arena/ARIA%20Comboboxes/ARIA%20Comboboxes%20(Simulated,%20Readonly)/demo.htm
>
> Examining the accessibility tree in IE and FF, you can see the Value
> property is set for the first, but not for the second.
>
> The closest association provided by the spec is to use aria-activedescendant
> as the Value of the Combobox. However this breaks when the associated
> Listbox is removed from the DOM as part of a fully dynamic widget, then
> aria-activedescendant is null or left pointing at nothing.
>
> The second issue with the Combobox role, is where it states that
> aria-haspopup is implicitly set to "true" on all Combobox roles.
>
> I understand why, since the dropdown effect is what this refers to by
> connecting the attached Listbox.
>
> However, what would happen if I also had a right click ARIA Menu attached to
> the edit field of a Combobox?
>
> Since setting aria-haspopup="true" would be pointless (since this is
> implicitly "true" already), how would this be conveyed to the AT user?
>
> Thanks,
> Bryan
>
>

Received on Wednesday, 1 July 2015 13:32:55 UTC