RE: Accessible styled form select

In ARIA terms, an HTML select is much more like a listbox than a combobox. ARIA defines a combobox as the combination of an edit and another element to help set the value of the edit, such as a listbox. An HTML select does not include an edit field.

 

The listbox design pattern is much simpler. We have a draft with some examples, not yet fully vetted but still in pretty reasonable state at:

http://w3c.github.io/aria-practices/#Listbox

 

Please do not use the content in the deleted sections page of the master branch of authoring practices. We kept it in the github repository for reference by people working on the guide, but the content has been deleted because it was not adequately vetted and contains easily recognizable errors.

 

I plan to have a draft of the combobox pattern in review before the end of March.

 

Matt King

 

 

From: Beranek, Nicholas [mailto:Nicholas.Beranek@capitalone.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2017 12:28 PM
To: Lisette Arocha (US - Advisory) <lisette.m.arocha@pwc.com>; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: RE: Accessible styled form select

 

Ah, the infamous Combo box widget. It depends on how much work you want to put into it. The design pattern within the WAI-ARIA authoring practices can be found at the following link: https://rawgit.com/w3c/aria-practices/master/aria-practices-DeletedSectionsArchive.html#combobox

 

There is an open issue on Github for that pattern to revamp it at the following link: https://github.com/w3c/aria-practices/issues/31

 

It is a complicated widget. I do recommend maintaining a native SELECT, but you can keep it hidden beneath a button. When the button is activated, we display the listbox within the SELECT menu. It allows for you to have that initial style you want, but gives you that default keyboard functionality that you’d otherwise need using JavaScript.

 

The following link is an example of the design pattern I just mentioned: http://www.456bereastreet.com/lab/custom-select/

 

The only problem I can see with the combo box example is the fact that when you open the Listbox and then close it, the visual focus indicator doesn’t display even though <select> has focus. You would expect the indicator to show each time it receives focus.

 

Let me know if I can help you further!

 

Nick

Capital One

 

From: Lisette Arocha (US - Advisory) [mailto:lisette.m.arocha@pwc.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2017 10:11 AM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org <mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org> 
Subject: Accessible styled form select

 

In my work as a front end developer I encourage clients to use the native select field but I still have clients that want to have custom styled selects which means I would need to style a list and have it control the select hidden on the page. 

 

Curious if anyone has resources or a plugin that shows how to do this in a way that is fully accessible.

 

Thanks! 

 


Lisette Arocha
PwC | Experience Center | Senior Associate, Technology
Direct:  <tel:786-427-6894> 786-427-6894  | Mobile:  <tel:954-296-5792> (954)296-5792

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