Re: How can a countdown timer for an online test conform to WCAG 2.1

Christophe

I feel it would be simpler, since likely those that would be distracted by
such a timer are eligible for accommodation, to not have the countdowns for
them? But if you did have to - maybe the shortcut key in combination with a
preset to notify them either at specific time remaining (say every 15 or 30
seconds) or when they press a hotkey. The user could select their choice of
key or time interval on the settings page you mentioned.

Just ideas here - nothing tested yet.

*Dan Horning*
*518-285-0531*


On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 7:21 AM Christophe Strobbe <strobbe@hdm-stuttgart.de>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am auditing a site for online assessments. Each assessment has a
> countdown timer for the remaining time. The countdown timer consists of
> three parts in source code order: (1) an animated SVG that fills a circle
> with a different colour as time is used up, (2) a textual countdown for
> remaining minutes and seconds that is updated every second, and (3) the
> label "Remaining time".
>
> The two main issues I currently see are the following:
>
> (1) Marking this with aria-live=polite would probably still be too
> disruptive for screenreader users who are thinking how to solve a specific
> question, even if the update frequency were reduced from every second to
> every minute.
> (2) The animation is an issue for people with certain attention disorders
> (SC 2.2.2).
> (3) You would probably want the label to be read out before the remaining
> time, but that should be easy to fix (e.g. using aria-labelledby).
>
>
> For the first issue, one might offer a keyboard shortcut that allows
> screenreader users to get to the remaining time indicator; this would also
> require a keyboard shortcut that takes you back to what you were working
> on. (This assumes that the countdown timer has aria-live=off, but this is
> already implicit in role=timer.)
>
> For the first issue, I can imagine an option on the initial screen that
> allows you to choose a lower update frequency and to turn of the SVG
> animation. (The site I am auditing already has an initial screen where test
> takes need to choose between a male or female role, so no additional page
> would need to be created for this.)
>
> I wonder if people on this list have any thoughts on these suggestions or
> perhaps better ideas.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Christophe Strobbe
>