- From: Becky Gibson <Becky_Gibson@notesdev.ibm.com>
- Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 08:12:46 -0500
- To: wai-xtech@w3.org
Tooltips can be very useful but I'm not sure how to go about making them keyboard and screen reader accessible without being intrusive. Ideas: a keyboard command to invoke tooltips and they display when mouse over the "trigger" element visual indicator that a tooltip is available Tooltips could be given the ARIA role of alert so a screen reader will speak the alert when it is made visible or Tooltip can be implemented via the described by property on the trigger element. Concerns: If the tooltip is implemented via the describedby property, screen reader users will hear the tooltip whenever the trigger element receives focus - would this be too annoying? Is a visual indicator necessary or can the tooltip be discovered if there is a universal keystroke to invoke it.? How to implement the visual indicator? If a small image is used it would have no alt text since the tooltip is associated with the trigger element and is not the trigger itself. Is is necessary to identify the existence of a tooltip for screen reader users? The describedby property could be used to indicate "Press Alt-F10 for tooltip" but I worry that could be more annoying that having the tooltip itself spoken via the describedby property. Generally tooltips are displayed on a timer and then disappear. There have been complaints that this makes it difficult for people with cognitive impairments to read. Should there be a mechanism to display tooltips until they are explicitly closed via escape? Tooltips invoked via a certain key sequence would remain visible until closed and mouse over and "standard keyboard invoked" tooltips would be removed automatically. It will be difficult to find two sequences that can be used to invoke alerts which do not conflict with existing sequences. My inclination is to not include a visual indicator, use a keystroke to invoke the tooltip, have the tooltip display on a timer, and implement via the ARIA alert role. Keyboard and screen reader users would have to discover the tooltip by trying the keystroke sequence with focus on the trigger object. Adding a second keystroke to display the tooltip until dismissed would be an added feature. Becky Gibson Web Accessibility Architect IBM Emerging Internet Technologies 5 Technology Park Drive Westford, MA 01886 Voice: 978 399-6101; t/l 333-6101 Email: gibsonb@us.ibm.com
Received on Wednesday, 28 February 2007 13:12:59 UTC