New SC relating to notifications of content change (was Re: Some thinking around the orientation discussion)

[Copying this to the WAI-GL list, as I think this is far more general / 
not directly related to only the mobile TF or even cognitive TF]

I think WCAG currently lacks an SC that essentially says something along 
the lines of "When content/structure/functionality is changed 
dynamically (either automatically or as a result of a user interaction), 
ensure that this change is conveyed to the user" (probably single or 
double A).

While what prompted me originally was the scenario of

- a user flips their mobile/tablet device from landscape to portrait, 
and the overall page layout/structure/functionality changes (e.g. new UI 
elements are added/shown, components such as carousels turn into 
accordions, the overall view in a calendar flips from "today's schedule" 
to "this month's overview" or similar)

I'm actually thinking about something more broad and generic - not 
necessarily related to responsive designs per se, but also covering 
situations like:

- a user changes some filtering options/controls at the top of a 
results/catalogue page, and (without reloading the page altogether) the 
list of items further down the page is dynamically updated; generally, 
we'd advise people to add an aria live region (usually hidden) that 
simply states "results listing updated (showing 10 of 50)" or similar, 
so that an AT user can get notification that another part of the page 
has changed (without an actual change in context)

- some content on the page is auto-updated - so not as a result of a 
user action, but based on other factors (e.g. a timer, a push 
notification coming from the server, etc)

But yes, this would also cover - in the specific context of what we 
discussed - device orientation change, and a resulting change of layout 
which also fundamentally changes functionality/layout/structure.

4.1.2 currently covers notifications/changes of state on a control 
itself (so that users get notified if, for instance, the interface 
component that the user is currently on changes in 
functionality/value/meaning), but WCAG doesn't - to my knowlede anyway - 
contain an SC about notifying users of changes elsewhere in the 
page...and this, particularly for dynamic sites, is arguably needed.

The timing aspect of auto-updating content is covered/touched on in 
2.2.2, but I don't believe it actually covers the *notification* of the 
auto-update itself, only having the ability to pause/stop/hide these 
auto-updates.

But there is, I think, a gap here - no SC that specifically calls for 
users to be notified of fundamental/substantive changes to the current page.

Sufficient technique wise, we'd probably be looking at (for HTML/JS/ARIA 
technologies) things like:

- move the focus programmatically to the changed content - but be 
careful of not falling foul of 3.2.2 / change of context (and 
particularly if the user is likely to be in the middle of some other 
activity, such as working their way through filtering/refining search 
results, it would be inappropriate to yank their focus to the updated 
results, as they may not even have been done with their filtering)

- notify the user with a hidden aria-live region (as described above), 
which would allow for a change notification without change of context / 
yanking the user away from their current activity/focus

Thoughts?

P

On 06/05/2016 01:43, David MacDonald wrote:
> I agree... it is a good point in a responsive world where sections get
> dropped off ... do you have some proposed language?
>
>   I'm wondering what type of mechanism we might propose to notify a user
> of what is gone from a page and how to get it back...
>
> The Cognitive team have looked at simplifying interfaces dropping off
> content that is not central to the point of the page, that might be
> pertinent to this success criteria
>
> They proposed an attribute "@aria-importance": {"high"}
> This might be an area we would want to stay in close contact with them
> about...
>
> Cheers,
> David MacDonald
>
> *Can**Adapt**Solutions Inc.*
>
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> On Thu, May 5, 2016 at 7:42 PM, Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk
> <mailto:redux@splintered.co.uk>> wrote:
>
>     On 05/05/2016 17:50, David MacDonald wrote:
>
>         Added to WIKI
>
>         https://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/mobile-a11y-tf/wiki/Proposed_revision_of_3.4.1
>
>
>     I was going to comment on the line about "Changes in orientation
>     must be programmatically exposed", but I see that in the latest edit
>     on the wiki that has been removed. Just to say I approve of this,
>     partially because it's usually the domain of the OS/AT to announce
>     an orientation change.
>
>     I *can* see that in certain situations it would be useful to
>     announce to the user if something changed in the current page/view
>     as a result of an orientation change (e.g. a completely different
>     layout is introduced with more/less navigation options,
>     functionalities, etc), but this is probably something that falls
>     under the need to have a more generic "if parts of the page change,
>     this change should be announced to the user" SC (which, at least for
>     interface components, is probably covered by 4.1.2, but not for
>     non-user-interface cases.
>
>     For this latter part, is it worth proposing/thinking about another
>     SC (which is, once again, not really "mobile" specific)?
>
>
>     P
>     --
>     Patrick H. Lauke
>
>     www.splintered.co.uk <http://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
>
>
>


-- 
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

Received on Friday, 6 May 2016 08:22:20 UTC