[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #32170: List table: sortable column headers accessibility

[WordPress Trac]

#32170: List table: sortable column headers accessibility
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 Reporter:  afercia         |       Owner:  afercia
     Type:  defect (bug)    |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:  4.3
Component:  Administration  |     Version:  4.2
 Severity:  normal          |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch     |     Focuses:  ui, accessibility
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Comment (by afercia):

 Replying to [comment:8 joedolson]:
 > If we set up the text as an aria-describedby or aria-labelledby and
 associated it with the link, do you think that should be read as part of
 the th scope?
 Experimented a bit in the last days and couldn't find a clean way to add
 `aria-describedby` on the table headers and at the same time to avoid the
 description being read out when navigating through the table cells.
 Basically, anything inside a table header will be read out as the header
 content.
 To keep it simple, maybe we should just provide information about the
 sortable headers and a separate control ''outside the table'' and then
 hide this with screen-reader-text.
 In addition to what Rian pointed out in the previous comment, here's a
 summary and some other points discussed in our brainstorming session:
 - add info in the Help tab
 - make visually clear the difference between sortable and not sortable
 columns
 - add screen-reader-text before the table about sorting and order
 - show the arrow on the currently sorted column, if any
 - on hover and focus show the arrows on sortable columns
 - use [http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/states_and_properties#aria-sort aria-
 sort], while not universally supported, WordPress is in the position to
 actually encourage web standards adoption; as far as I know, it works at
 least in JAWS and NVDA

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/32170#comment:13>
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