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USWDS - Memorable date: Dropdown options containing month name and number can be confusing for screen reader users. #5911
Description
Summary
Visually impaired users of screen readers are confused by the announcement of the options in the memorable date dropdown because they include a number and a month (i.e. "01 - January"). They sometimes confuse it to mean a month and day (i.e. "January 1st"). It may better meet expectations and lessen confusion to list only the month name without the number.
Observations
A blind participant tried to choose the month in the memorable date dropdown during usability testing and heard it announce "01 - January" and thought it meant 'January 1st.' He also commented that that was not something he expected and that it should only list the month names with no numbers.
Affected user groups
- Screen reader users
Research method
Usability testing with 8 participants with disabilities:
- 5 visually impaired (3 blind, 2 low vision/legally blind (1 with nystagmus))
- 1 motor impairment
- 1 ADHD
- 1 anxiety and depression
Screen reader software participants used: JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver
[Link to public findings report forthcoming...here is the internal Zebra findings report] 🔒
Next steps
- Remove the numbers from the options and only display the month names. Note: Only do this if it is possible to allow users to still type a name OR a number in the combo box to search for the month (see USWDS - Memorable date: Input options don't meet some users expectations #5910 ), since it is important to allow users to search by either the name or the number of the month based on zebra usability testing results.
Activity
[-]USWDS - Memorable date: Combobox labels can be confusing for screen reader users.[/-][+]USWDS - Memorable date: Dropdown options containing month name and number can be confusing for screen reader users.[/+]amyleadem commentedon Sep 11, 2024
@jaclinec Is this a duplicate of #5910?
jaclinec commentedon Sep 11, 2024
@amyleadem The issues are definitely closely related and are kind of the same now.
Originally, I created 2 separate issues for 2 separate things:
Long story short, we can probably close this issue in favor of #5910
thisisdano commentedon Nov 6, 2024
Fixed by #6028