2017-08-14 07:42:06 +02:00
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# Accessibility (A11Y) Guide
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This document provides some technical guidelines how to prevent several common
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accessibility issues.
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## Naming elements
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### `aria-label` and `aria-labelledby`
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Every element on a page will have a name, that is read out to an assistive technology
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like a screen reader. This will for most elements be the content of the element.
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For form elements it will be the content of the assosciated `<label>` (see below).
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You can overwrite that name, that is read out, by specifying a new name via the
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`aria-label` attribute. This must e.g. be done, if the element itself has no
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visual text representation (e.g. an icon button):
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```html
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<button aria-label="Add filter"><span class="fa fa-plus"></span></button>
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```
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2017-10-11 18:50:32 +02:00
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If you have to use a form element without a related `<label>` element, you can use `aria-label`
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directly on the form element to provide labeling information to screen readers.
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2017-08-14 07:42:06 +02:00
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If the actual name for that element is already present in another element,
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you can use `aria-labelledby` to reference the id of that element:
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```html
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<div id="datepicker">Date Picker</div>
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<button aria-labelledby="datepicker"><span class="fa fa-calendar"></span></button>
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```
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### Label every form element
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You should add a label for every form element:
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```html
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<label for="interval">Interval</label>
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<select id="interval"><!-- ... --></select>
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```
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If one label references multiple form elements, you can use the reverse logic
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and add `aria-labelledby` to all form elements:
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```html
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<label id="fromLabel">From</label>
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<input type="number" aria-labelledby="fromLabel">
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<input type="number" aria-labelledby="fromLabel">
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<input type="number" aria-labelledby="fromLabel">
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```
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You should always prefer the `<label for>` solution, since it also adds benefit
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for every user, by making the label clickable, to directly jump to the form
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element (or in case of checkboxes and radio buttons directly check them).
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2017-09-11 13:22:32 +02:00
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#### How to generate ids?
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When labeling elements (and for some other accessibility tasks) you will often need
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ids. Ids must be unique within the page i.e. no duplicate ids in the rendered DOM
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at any time.
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Since we have some components that are used multiple times on the page, you must
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make sure every instance of that component has a unique `id`. To make the generation
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2018-03-13 18:43:39 +01:00
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of those `id`s easier, you can use the `htmlIdGenerator` service in the `@kbn/ui-framework/services`.
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2017-09-11 13:22:32 +02:00
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A react component could use it as follows:
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```jsx
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2018-03-13 18:43:39 +01:00
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import { htmlIdGenerator } from '@kbn/ui-framework/services';
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2017-09-11 13:22:32 +02:00
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render() {
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// Create a new generator that will create ids deterministic
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const htmlId = htmlIdGenerator();
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return (<div>
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<label htmlFor={htmlId('agg')}>Aggregation</label>
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<input id={htmlId('agg')}/>
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</div>);
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}
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```
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Each id generator you create by calling `htmlIdGenerator()` will generate unique but
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deterministic ids. As you can see in the above example, that single generator
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created the same id in the label's `htmlFor` as well as the input's `id`.
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A single generator instance will create the same id when passed the same argument
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to the function multiple times. But two different generators will produce two different
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ids for the same argument to the function, as you can see in the following example:
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```js
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const generatorOne = htmlIdGenerator();
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const generatorTwo = htmlIdGenerator();
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// Those statements are always true:
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// Same generator
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generatorOne('foo') === generatorOne('foo');
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generatorOne('foo') !== generatorOne('bar');
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// Different generator
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generatorOne('foo') !== generatorTwo('foo')
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```
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This allows multiple instances of a single react component to now have different ids.
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If you include the above react component multiple times in the same page,
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each component instance will have a unique id, because each render method will use a different
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id generator.
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You can use this service of course also outside of react.
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2017-08-14 07:42:06 +02:00
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### Don't use the `title` attribute
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**TL;DR** *Don't use the `title` attribute, use tooltips, `aria-label`, etc. instead.*
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The `title` has no clear role within the accessibility standards.
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[See the HTML5 spec](http://w3c.github.io/html/dom.html#the-title-attribute) for more information.
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To provide supplementary, descriptive information about a form control, button, link, or other element,
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that should also be visible to non vision impaired users, use a tooltip component instead.
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If you need a label only for screen readers use `aria-label`.
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**Additional reading:**
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* https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2010/11/using-the-html-title-attribute/
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* https://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2012/01/html5-accessibility-chops-title-attribute-use-and-abuse/
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* https://www.deque.com/blog/text-links-practices-screen-readers/
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## Interactive elements
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### Use `<button>` and `<a href>`
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2017-09-11 18:34:44 +02:00
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**TL;DR** *Use `<button>` or `<a>` (with `href`) instead of click listeners on other elements
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and style it whatever way you need.*
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If you want to make an element clickable, use a `<button>` or `<a href>` element for it.
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Use a `<button>` whenever it causes an action on the current page, and an `<a href>` if it
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navigates to a different page. You can use click listeners just fine on these elements.
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An `<a>` element must have an `href` attribute, so that (a) it will be correctly perceived
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as a link by a screen reader and (b) that registered click listener will correctly
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trigger on pressing <kbd>Enter</kbd>. If you don't need it, make it `href="#"`
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and call `preventDefault()` on the click event.
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*Why not use other elements?*
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If you create e.g. a `<div>` with a click listener (like `<div ng-click="ctrl.doSomething()">...</div>`)
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you will create multiple accessibility issues:
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* The element is not *keyboard accessible*, meaning:
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* You cannot focus it by pressing <kbd>tab</kbd>. You can add this behavior by
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adding `tabindex="0"` to the element.
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* You cannot trigger the click by pressing <kbd>Enter</kbd> or <kbd>Space</kbd>.
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We have a `kbn-accessible-click` directive for AngularJS and a `KuiKeyboardAccessible`
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React component to add that behavior.
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* Even if you make it keyboard accessible, a user using a screen reader won't
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recognize, that the div is actually an interactive element, the screen reader
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will just announce something like: "Sort". You would need
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to add `role="button"` or `role="link"` to it, so that the screen reader would
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actually announce something like "Sort, button" and give the user the required
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information, that this element is interactive.
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You will need quite some work just to rebuild native logic of a button (and we haven't
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even touched disabled states, etc.). It is most of the time easier to just use
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a `button` or an `a` and style this, whatever way you want it to look (even if
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you don't want it to look like a button at all).
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### tabindex and id
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**TL;DR** *Only use `tabindex="0"` and `tabindex="-1"` and no values above 0. Always
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add an `id` to an element with `tabindex`.*
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If you want to make an element focusable, that doesn't offer this feature by default
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(i.e. isn't an form element or a link), you can add `tabindex` with a value >= 0 to it.
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*Why shouldn't you use values above 0?*
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Setting `tabindex="0"` will add the element to the tabbing order at the position
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it is in the DOM. Setting it to something above 0 will create an explicit order.
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Tabbing will always focus all elements with an tabindex > 0, starting from the smallest
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number. After all those elements has been tabbed, it will continue with all `tabindex="0"`
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or implicit tabable elements. These values are not scoped to a subtree of the
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DOM, but are global values. Maintaining a global order is nearly impossible
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and considered a [serious issue](https://dequeuniversity.com/rules/axe/1.1/tabindex)
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by automated accessibility testing frameworks.
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`tabindex="-1"` will remove an element from tab order, that would be focusable
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otherwise. You won't need this often.
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*Why should you add an `id`?*
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Due to some bugs in some common screen readers, you will always need to add an `id`
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to an element with `tabindex`, since they wouldn't pick up the `tabindex` correctly
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otherwise.
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### Tooltips
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**TL;DR** *Add `role="tooltip"` and `aria-describedby` to elements for accessible tooltips.*
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Elements which act as tooltips should have the `role="tooltip"` attribute and an ID to which the
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described element can point to with the `aria-describedby` attribute. For example:
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```html
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<div
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class="kuiTooltip"
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role="tooltip"
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id="visualizationsTooltip"
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>
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Visualizations help you make sense of your data.
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</div>
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<button aria-describedby="visualizationsTooltip">
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Visualizations
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</button>
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```
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### Don't create keyboard traps
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**TL;DR** *If you can't leave an element with <kbd>Tab</kbd> again, it needs a special interaction model.*
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If an interactive element consumes the <kbd>Tab</kbd> key (e.g. a code editor to
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create an actual tabular indentation) it will prevent a keyboard user to leave
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that element again. Also see [WCAG 2.1.2](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#keyboard-operation-trapping).
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Those kind of elements, require a special interaction model. A [code editor](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/pull/13339)
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could require an <kbd>Enter</kbd> keypress before starting editing mode, and
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could leave that mode on <kbd>Escape</kbd> again.
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Unfortunately there is no universal solution for this problem, so be aware when creating
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such elements, that would consume tabbing, to think about an accessible interaction
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model.
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*Hint:* If you create that kind of interactive elements `role="application"` might
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be a good `role` (also see below) for that element. It is meant for elements providing
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their own interaction schemes.
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## Roles
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Each DOM element has an implicit role in the accessibility tree (that assistive technologies
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use). The mapping of elements to default roles can be found in the
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[Accessibility API Mappings](https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aam-1.0/#html-element-role-mappings).
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You can overwrite this role via the `role` attribute on an element, and the
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assistive technology will now behave the same like any other element with that role
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(e.g. behave like it is a button when it has `role="button"`).
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### Landmark roles
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Some roles can be used to declare so called landmarks. These landmarks tag important
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parts of a web page. Screen readers offer a quick way to jump to these
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parts of the page (*landmark navigation*).
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#### role=main
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The `main` role (or equivalent using the `<main>` tag) declares the main part
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of a page. This can be used in the landmark navigation to quickly jump to the
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actual main area of the page (and skip all headers, navigations, etc.).
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#### `<section>`
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The `<section>` element, can be used to mark a region on the page, so that it
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appears in the landmark navigation. The section element therefore needs to have
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an *accessible name*, i.e. you should add an `aria-label`, that gives a short
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title to that section of the page.
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### role=search
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**TL;DR** *Place `role="search"` neither on the `<input>` nor the `<form>`, but
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some `div` in between.*
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Role search can be used to mark a region as used for searching. This can be used
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by assistive technologies to quickly find and navigate to this section.
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If you place it on the `input` you will overwrite the implicit `textbox` or `searchbox`
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role, and as such confuse the user, since it loses it meaning as in input element.
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If you place it on the `form` element you will also overwrite its role and
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remove it from a quick jump navigation to all forms.
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That's why it should be placed to an `div` (or any other container) between the
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`form` and the `input`. In most cases we already have a div there that you can
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easily put this role to.
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**Related Links:**
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* [Where to put your search role?](http://adrianroselli.com/2015/08/where-to-put-your-search-role.html)
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* Discussions about making `search` role inherit the `form` role:
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[wcag/113](https://github.com/w3c/wcag/issues/113),
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[html-aria/118](https://github.com/w3c/html-aria/issues/18),
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[aria/85](https://github.com/w3c/aria/issues/85)
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