WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: enter key to check radio button?

for

From: David Farough
Date: Apr 21, 2022 2:31PM

I think that verifying that focus is on the submit button makes sense before automatically submitting the form.
A screen reader user will need to hit enter in order to trigger focus mode in order to type into an edit field for example.
Automatically submitting the form regardless of the current focus would be annoying to say the least!

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Mike Warner
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2022 2:59 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Cc: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] enter key to check radio button?

Thanks, TJ. I don't know which key they want to submit the form. (I sent a
follow-up email to ask) Since consistency is the rule of accessibility, it
seems that this could cause more confusion than it prevents. For example,
keyboard-only users who expect to submit forms using the enter key,
because that's how it works everywhere else. I can add an event listener
to the radio buttons (and checkboxes) to prevent the default action of the
enter key, allowing it to check the box/button, but would that be confusing
to some users?

Mike

Mike Warner
Director of IT Services
MindEdge, Inc.


On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 2:32 PM TJ McElroy < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Hi Mike,
>
> I do think that it is a reasonable request to have the enter key check a
> button,
> however it should also be able to submit the form.
>
> Your user does have a point, that you should allow for many different ways
> to use the form
>
>
> Not to read to much into your question, but if your user does not want the
> enter key to submit the form, what key do they suggest?
>
> TJ
>
>
> On 4/21/2022 1:37 PM, Mike Warner wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> we have a client who was saying that we should also allow the enter key to
> check a radio button and not to let that enter key submit the form on
> the page. They said that we should be prepared for however a keyboard user
> may try to check the button. I explained that spacebar is the standard key
> for that and sent the W3C page that talks about it. Has anyone else been
> asked to accept the enter key to check a radio button? Is it a reasonable
> request?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike
>
> Mike Warner
> Director of IT Services
> MindEdge, Inc.
> > > > >
>
>
>
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