RE: screen reader focus with dynamic content

Jacob, look at the aria-controls attribute
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/states_and_properties#aria-controls
to indicate the document pane content that represent the selected item in
a grid.

I believe this functionality is supported in Firefox by the major screen
readers -- last time I checked it was not as well supported in IE.  Screen
readers should announce a keystroke to move to the area that is controlled
by an element.

Jonathan

-----Original Message-----
From: Jacob Mouka [mailto:jmouka@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 5:22 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: screen reader focus with dynamic content

Hello everyone

I have question about screen reader (and/or keyboard navigation) focus of
dynamic content. Specifically, how well do screen readers allow the person
to jump around dynamically updating content without losing track of their
position? My understanding is that the aria-live attribute is the correct
method for notifying of content updates, but what's the strategy for
keeping track of the focus? A typical case is having a list of items, and
clicking one of them displays more details about that item in a detail
component.  For example, in an email application there is the list of
emails and selecting one email shows the details about it. This update
tends to be dynamic, and I can see using aria-live to notify the person of
the update, but is there some mechanism to explore the updated content and
then jump back to the list? In general, is there a good strategy for
tracking the history of jumping around dynamic content?

My interest is fairly broad. I'm looking for best practices, how well
screen readers handle the tracking of focus, and also about any research
that has been done in this area.

Any information is much appreciated, thank you!
Jacob

Received on Wednesday, 20 March 2013 12:12:15 UTC