Rating slider is not a good pattern

[JAWS-test]

In my opinion, the rating slider is not a pattern that we should recommend:

• if my blind colleague tells me that he operates the slider and I don't see any slider on the page, then it is confusing
• with the mouse I do not realize that I can select half values. If I click in the right half of a star, I won't notice that I can also click in the left half and give a different rating.
• since the slider is not visually recognizable as a slider, it is operated with the mouse by clicking rather than moving. On click, it is difficult to set the slider to the 0 value if I have previously clicked on a star. I can set the 0 value with the mouse by click only if I click just to the left of the left star. But this is not noticeable. Mouse users will assume that after activating a star no 0-value can be set.
• Currently, it seems unclear whether or not the rating stars must meet the WCAG requirement for target size (see https://github.com/w3c/wcag/issues/2713). If yes, then they do not fulfill it

[JAWS-test]

HTML specification says:

[The slider element] represents a control for setting the element's value to a string representing a number, but with the caveat that the exact value is not important, letting UAs provide a simpler interface than they do for the Number state.

Therefore a slider for exact values like in the rating example would be wrong

[jongund]

I agree that allowing half stars has user interface issues and should be avoided, but some people like building them, so we should provide a means to help them understand how to make them accessible.

Examples:

• https://blog.logrocket.com/build-a-half-star-rating-component-in-react-from-scratch/
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/62096550/setting-up-half-icons-with-a-rating-system

[JAWS-test]

@jongund I don't understand your argument, because if a pattern is not accessible, then it should not be used, whether someone wants it or not. I have concerns about the accessibility and usability of the pattern and think it should be rebuilt or removed. Rebuilt would mean that the click areas are large enough and that I have an visual indicator that

• half stars can be selected
• the value 0 can be chosen

[css-meeting-bot]

The ARIA Authoring Practices (APG) Task Force just discussed Rating slider issue.

The full IRC log of that discussion

<Matt_King> TOPIC: Rating slider issue
<Matt_King> github: https://github.com/w3c/aria-practices/issues/2501
<jongund> MK: There is a criticism that slider should not be used for ratings
<jongund> JG: The issue is a disconnect between seeing something that looks like a slider and have a slider control
<jongund> JN: What should it be?
<jongund> MK: We all have opinions, use the role that looks like the thing
<jongund> JN: There is not a rating thing
<jongund> MK: Since there is not a rating role
<jongund> JN: We should not having something that has half stars, if you want more there should be more stars
<jongund> MK: JG where dod you find this?
<jongund> JG: I have found one, they are not common
<jongund> JN: I have not seen this
<jongund> MK: Whether it supports or doesn't support half stars
<jongund> MK: The half stars is the issue
<jongund> JN: I agree
<jongund> MK: We agree that half stars doesn't change whether slider is an appropriate role
<jongund> MK: The next bullit is more relavent about no rail for drag
<jongund> JN: I have to go
<jongund> MK: Top of the hour
<jongund> JG: It seems like we should get rid of the half stars
<jongund> MK: The WCAG point is drag
<jongund> MK: Since it is not obvious that it is draggable
<jongund> MK: That and the fact that setting it to zero is not obvious, they might be ligitament
<jongund> MK: I wondering a you can perceive whether you can drag, maybe there should ne something you can drag
<jongund> JG: Are we creating an example that will not be used in real life.
<jongund> MK: What are we demonstrating with this exampel that we are not doing with other examples
<jongund> JG: APG should be provding more clarity than questions
<jongund> rrsagent, draft minutes
<RRSAgent> I have made the request to generate https://www.w3.org/2022/11/01-aria-apg-minutes.html jongund

[jongund]

@JAWS-test We discussed the example at a meting last month and agreed that it was not a good example in its current state. We would like to have a rating example using the slider pattern, since we still feel that additional keystrokes for a larger number of rating options is useful for more efficiently selecting values.

The idea for changing the example is to change the 5 stars to 10 circles, mimicking bubble forms.

We would also add information on why the slider pattern maybe useful over the radio button pattern when the number of options is greater than some number N.

What do you think of this proposal?

[JAWS-test]

@jongund Yes, that sounds good. Thanks for the planned improvements