Opened 6 months ago
Last modified 8 weeks ago
#63760 accepted defect (bug)
Single key arrow navigation in theme and media modals can interfere with screen reader navigation
| Reported by: |
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Owned by: |
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| Milestone: | 7.0 | Priority: | normal |
| Severity: | normal | Version: | |
| Component: | General | Keywords: | needs-patch |
| Focuses: | accessibility, javascript | Cc: |
Description
With a screen reader running, left and right arrow keys are used to navigate. However, in the media and theme modals, they will also trigger moving to the next theme.
There isn't a simple way to prevent this from working only if using a screen reader, so it would be good to provide a way to disable these keyboard events.
This is very close to violating [WCAG SC 2.1.4]https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/character-key-shortcuts.html, but the criteria is specific to keys that input content, and so it doesn't cover arrow keys.
However, this can be disconcerting for screen reader users, as they may navigate between different items when intending to explore the content.
The simplest solution is to add a second key as a requirement to trigger arrow navigation. This is fairly standard - that keyboard shortcuts shouldn't be triggered with a single key that has other functions. But it would be a notable change that could impact some people's work flow.