Error identification technique

Aria-live or aria-alert plus aria-describedby for error identification:
Documenting two separate techniques will be better in  my opinion:
i. Using aria-alert or aria-live 
ii. Using aria-describedby

The problem is that often after form submission the message that errors are present or the error message(s) is displayed goes unnoticed by the non-sighted user. 
Aria-live or aria-alert helps to  fix this.

Setting tabindex=-1 and setting focus to this message is also helpful so the user does not have to navigate back. 
So there should be a technique that simply demonstrates this and then maybe there will be scope to discuss  user agent nuances.

The individual error messages may be lumped together above the form or each message may be placed in the vicinity of the failed field. In either case, aria-describedby will work. Some suggest using the label tag as a container for the error message (not my preference) but if one uses it on a page, it will still pass. But there’s still the need to convey that the form submission has failed.
One could do this by placing focus on the first failed field  that has the error message  marked up with aria-describedby and not use aria-live/alert if no summary error message is presented above the form. 

So the two methods may stand by themselves.
Regards,
Sailesh

Received on Wednesday, 9 October 2013 01:50:10 UTC