how do you make modal popup panels work with screen readers?
I'm building a website for our internal website which uses modal popups to expand on summaries on several pages.
e.g. a section explaining the purpose of the website mentions how it can help you plan your training requirements. A linkbutton opens a modal popup explaining how to use the site's resources in more detail - there's not enough information to warrant a whole new page, and just a bit too much to fit on the front page and retain the look that the customer wants.
Now, I've got the site working nicely, modal popups appearing nicely and appreciated by test users as making the site easy to navigate. Unfortunately, I've been told we now need to make sure that our sites can be used with screen readers (even though we've noone using them in the organisation) .
I've tested the site with Jaws and Window-Eyes; WindowEyes can read the popup if the user highlights the text, but won't automatically shift focus to the modal, and Jaws doesn't recognise it at all.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to tie screen readers into the ajax toolkit controls?
e.g. a section explaining the purpose of the website mentions how it can help you plan your training requirements. A linkbutton opens a modal popup explaining how to use the site's resources in more detail - there's not enough information to warrant a whole new page, and just a bit too much to fit on the front page and retain the look that the customer wants.
Now, I've got the site working nicely, modal popups appearing nicely and appreciated by test users as making the site easy to navigate. Unfortunately, I've been told we now need to make sure that our sites can be used with screen readers (even though we've noone using them in the organisation) .
I've tested the site with Jaws and Window-Eyes; WindowEyes can read the popup if the user highlights the text, but won't automatically shift focus to the modal, and Jaws doesn't recognise it at all.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to tie screen readers into the ajax toolkit controls?
ASKER
being honest, that was a bit too advanced for me (fairly new to this webpage thing, much happier winging it on databases), it's good reference material for future work but I still need to amend my current project quickly - currently it looks as though I'll have to make it a very simple, noddy site with none of the bells and whistles which the testers said improved the feel and presentation
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ASKER
thanks for that; the AJAX side was mostly for convenience and consistency within our team's projects.
However, after redesigning the pages to not use any kind of popups and having it AA tested, the project was cancelled!
However, after redesigning the pages to not use any kind of popups and having it AA tested, the project was cancelled!
http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200910/lightboxes_and_keyboard_accessibility/
http://mondaybynoon.com/2009/10/12/the-trouble-with-lightbox-and-its-variants/
http://www.habdas.org/2009/03/29/building-a-better-lightbox/