Voice Over, Tabbing and Text Boxes

[LittleRiverBB]

For ADA accessibility purposes, a visually impaired person must be able to navigate the site using just a keyboard and voice over software. When tabbing from item to item on my site, the tabbing bypasses the text boxes and only tabs from link to link.

Is there a special kind of text box element I am supposed to use to make tabbing recognize the text box so it will read it?

[lely]

Hi @LittleRiverBB,

X gives a basic compatibility with the accessibility features, but to be able to delve into details and be advanced you might need to use a plugin. Please check this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-accessibility/

Also, can you give exact details which part of the site you expect to have tab index? Thank you.

[LittleRiverBB]

Thanks Lely,

I will look at the link for the plug-in. Its the text elements that are skipped over by tabbing (so the voice over doesn’t read the narrative to the visitor to the site). I don’t know if there is some way to tag the text element so tabbing will recognize this as something to tab into and read.

I am unsure whose issue this is.

• I have tried it on Chrome and Safari so it does not appear to be a specific browser issue.
• I only have a Mac so its possible its an Apple issue but I don’t have an easy way to test it.
• I have tried other websites (not mine) and they have the same issue (and they are in the website design business and are talking up the ADA accessibility issue a lot) so maybe its just an inherent problem with text elements and keyboard navigation.

This is definitely a usability concern.

[rad]

Hi @LittleRiverBB,

I think it’s browser limitation as you can only tab to certain elements like link, buttons, controls, and similar but it’s not possible for standard text. Please check this https://bitsofco.de/how-and-when-to-use-the-tabindex-attribute/

It may require complex development in order to do that for just texts, but I’m not saying it’s completely possible or not possible.

Thanks!