search

alphagov / tech-docs-gem

Gem to distribute the tech docs project
https://tdt-documentation.london.cloudapps.digital/
MIT License
15 stars 38 forks source link

Remove typeahead search functionality #259

Closed zapthedingbat closed 3 years ago

zapthedingbat commented 3 years ago

⚠️ Don't forget to update the gem version in the CHANGELOG before merging! When you're ready to release bump version file and generate a tag. ⚠️

This is a fix for an accessibility issue related to displaying search results as the user types. There's a longer discussion in PR #239 and the referenced google sheet. The collusion in the immediate term seem to be:

Quick fix could be as simple as turning off search-as-you-type - tech side would need to check with accessibility team this is WCAG-compliant.

The issue The remaining accessibility issue is essentially due to the TDT search results popping up over page content. DAC’s description of the issue is in cell B22 of the TechDocs Template development spreadsheet, and the discussion so far is in tech-doc-gems PR #239. We’ve said we’ll fix this issue by 30 September in the TDT accessibility statement.

Quick fix could be as simple as turning off search-as-you-type - tech side would need to check with accessibility team this is WCAG-compliant.

"Issue ID: DAC_Search_Results_Dialog_01

Page: 37

The main page region appears to be hidden from assistive technology when the dialog is triggered. For sighted users, the dialog obscures the main page region, and this acts as a prompt to close it. However, this dialog is non-modal so for screen reader users, this content appears as if it was simply inset on the page after the search button. This means that users navigating with screen reading software may not make the association between needing to close the dialog in order to access the main page content again.

This region is marked up as a dialog with a clear label, however, as focus is not trapped it may not be easy for screen reader users to determine the boundaries of the dialog. When a search is explicitly submitted, focus is taken to the dialog, but lands on the ‘Offer GovWifi in your public sector organisation’ link, so that users either have to tab backwards to close it or otherwise tab through the page. Screen reader users may not be aware that the ‘close’ button is present, as they are navigated straight past it, and as much of the surrounding page appears to be available, would not necessarily infer the need to ‘close’ it.

Additionally, the results dialog appears as a user types in the search field without being explicitly requested. This means that typing within the edit field has the unintended direct consequence of hiding the main page content. Further, unless the form is explicitly submitted, screen reader users are not informed that the page has updated. This means that users who type in the field mistakenly may struggle to infer why the main content has now become hidden.

WCAG 2.1 (A)

m-green commented 3 years ago

Thanks for raising this - this has been superseded by the PR that @lfdebrux has linked to, so closing this now.