Re: [EXTERNAL] RE: Focus on a new page

Phil wrote:  As a screen reader user, I hear the page title announced, the label is announced, and the keyboard entry is set to the input field, so all I have to do is type my userID for example.

But if you're talking about a dialog, there may be a title and some instructional or informational text before the first input field and you will have jumped past that. Although all screen readers will read the title if it is set as the dialog's name, not all will read the instructional or informational text if it is set as the dialog's description. Voiceover in MacOS/Safari for example won't read the description if you set focus to an element within the dialog. Also, there are times when the informational or instructional text is multiple paragraphs long or is structured with headings and lists so reading this as the description makes it more difficult to comprehend. Ultimately the user may have to backtrack to read this text, if they realise it's there.

So I don't advocate setting focus to a field or button in a dialog except for simple alert dialogs which contain a short text message, some action buttons and, possibly, a form field or two.

Mark