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Predictability: Escape key to dismiss tooltips

Open OliKei opened this issue 5 months ago • 2 comments

https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/patterns/tooltip/

Hitting the Escape key to dismiss a tooltip is surely a nice option for getting rid of a tooltip, however, it may add cognitive friction for screen reader users. Screen reader users perceive the tooltip's information via a second channel (e.g. aria-description, or via title). They may not know if a tooltip is currently displayed or not, specifically if the process for displaying a tooltip depends on some system-based delay time. So in a case where a tooltip is not yet visible the use of the Escape key might then trigger unintended actions, such as cancelling a dialog. An alternative could be that the focused control will always consume the Escape key, but then an intended cancel action might not work, again, cognitive friction. IMHO the tooltip interaction needs to incorporate predictability, so unexpected actions will not be triggered unintentionally. Is there a way to tell a screen reader user a tooltip is already displayed so the use of the Escape key can be used with the knowledge of a tooltip is currently displayed on the screen?

OliKei avatar Sep 17 '24 08:09 OliKei