Re: modal / popups catching tabs - ADA rules?

For an excellent discussion of modals and how to make them more accessible, see https://www.tpgi.com/the-current-state-of-modal-dialog-accessibility/


Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 11, 2021, at 5:14 AM, rasmussen.bryan@gmail.com wrote:


(imagine a screen reader user
who can't actually see where the modal starts/ends ... they'll just
navigate through it and, without knowing it, navigate out and close it).

I'm imagining it functioning the way a lot of modals do when you click
on the modal overlay ('outside' the modal) and the modal closes, I
would expect of course to have track the navigation to know the user
had left the modal and be able to give them information the modal they
were in was now closed.

On Fri, Jun 11, 2021 at 12:03 PM Patrick H. Lauke
<redux@splintered.co.uk> wrote:

On 11/06/2021 10:17, bryan rasmussen wrote:
Hey,

I recently saw a tutorial where someone suggested that in a modal (and
I believe also popups) according to ADA rules that the user should be
prevented from tabbing out of the modal / popup.

That seems sort of weird to me since I would normally just think I
allow you to tab out and when you do I close the modal and give your
the focus outside the modal to wherever you are at (same applies
popup) - at first I thought well ok that's the way the ADA wants it
but the more I thought about it the more it seems just wrong to me.

So is the way I would normally do it correct or was the article
actually correct that the ADA would require you to prevent the user
from tabbing out of such a container? If so, can you clarify the
reasoning for me?

The ADA itself doesn't go into such deep technical detail, so it's best
to avoid statements like "the ADA rules require...", and more
specifically referencing WCAG or Section 508 or similar that actually
touch on technicalities...

Generally, for modal dialogs, there is ideally an expectation that focus
will be contained inside the modal until the user explicitly closes it.
See https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices-1.1/#dialog_modal


If the modal auto-closes if you tab out of its bounds...not 100% sure it
would be a hard failure of WCAG (e.g. under 2.4.3 Focus Order
https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/#focus-order), but it's certainly
unexpected and likely not good usability (imagine a screen reader user
who can't actually see where the modal starts/ends ... they'll just
navigate through it and, without knowing it, navigate out and close it).

Popups/tooltips are slightly more controversial. Some people see them as
tiny modal dialogs, while others look at them more like disclosure
widgets or similar where focus should not be contained. It often depends
on the amount of information/controls and type of popup.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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