[Irl-dean] Disabled Form Input fields

[Joshue O Connor]

Hi Eoin,

>> It's looking the data up from a database alright (it's an Ingres DB), there's
>> no problem at all with it populating the fields etc from the DB, just with
>> making the fields non-editable.

Off the top of my head, one way would be to actually hide the form when
'Look up' mode was being activated and display a little Flash animation
(revolving circles etc) or similar when the application was in this
mode. Once out of 'lookup' mode the form would be redisplayed, without
any need for disabling form elements. You could do this with a
combination of Javascript/Flash or by wrapping the form in a PHP include
(if using PHP) that is triggered (removed) on certain server calls -
like calling the 'look up' action/function. The animation itself would
not have to be made accessible, as such as it is primarily eye candy,
while the behind the scenes look up is taking place, as it has no
content to describe - just make sure it can be quietly ignored by the
screen reader user.

>> Another related accessibility issue has come up just there - someone's
>> pointed out that if form fields are set as disabled - JAWS will ignore them
>> as you tab through the form. So even if the contrast issue is solved, there's
>> probably a screen reader issue as well. 
>> 
>> I think I read somewhere that if JAWS is just reading the full contents of
>> the page that the disabled fields will be read out, but that tabbing isn't
>> available for disabled fields, but I'm not sure about this...

The above approach  would  remove any issues with JAWS and disabled form
fields, as the form fields are hidden when there is no needed or desired
user input. This is an issue that I have not come across so I would be
glad to test it for you if you want to send me links to some samples off
list.

> A potential solution might be to set the background of disabled fields to a
> colour that provides a bit more contrast to the grey, but it's hardly ideal,
> and will most likely look quite bizarre!
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts? Is there any way to control a browser's
> greying of the contents of disabled fields?

You should also be able use CSS to style the form elements in any way -
regardless of mode. The functionality may be altered (as in the user
cannot enter any data) but how that is presented to the User Agent
(browser) I am pretty sure that can be customised in 99% of use cases -
as its only author defined styling or presentation information and does
not interfere with the forms function or mode. Unless, due to some bug
it can't (which is always a possibility).

HTH

Josh




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