RE: auto set focus and accessibility

This is very common practice in pages with forms. I've fought it in the past
as an accessibility issue - but usually clients overrule the decision. WCAG
1 did address it in the don't change focus, page, etc without notifying the
user - right off hand I can't think of where it is addressed in WCAG 2.
 
Eugenia Slaydon 
Lead Content Developer 
Beacon Technologies, Inc.
336-931-1295 ext 225 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Seeman [mailto:seeman@netvision.net.il]
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2002 1:52 PM
To: W3c-Wai-Gl@W3.Org (E-mail); W3c-Wai-Pf@W3.Org (E-mail)
Subject: auto set focus and accessibility


I came across something new as I was Jaws browsing along, and that is the
auto focused of the page had been set to a text box mid way down the page
(you can see it at
http://www.Amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/002-5628707-8901611
<http://www.Amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/002-5628707-8901611>
)
 
this made the screen reader start from the text box and miss the info above
it. 
It stumped me how they had managed to do this, but then I found in their
code
onLoad="document.searchform.elements[1].focus()"
That did it.
 
Did I miss this in WCAG ?  it seems an accessibility issue.
It also may be an issue for the DOM object model - allowing a script to move
and control the focus and bounce you around the page without your knowledge.
All the best,

Lisa Seeman

UnBounded Access

Widen the World Web

http://www.UBaccess.com