Text input
No accessibility annotations are needed for text inputs, but keep these considerations in mind if you are modifying Carbon or creating a custom component.
What Carbon provides
Carbon bakes keyboard operation into its components, improving the experience of blind users and others who operate via the keyboard. Carbon incorporates many other accessibility considerations, some of which are described below.
Keyboard navigation
Carbon’s text inputs and text areas replicate the default HTML component operation. Each input field is a tab stop, as are any preceding information icons (which open with
Enter
Space
Esc
Enter
Space
Each input is a tab stop, as are any information icons.
Keyboard interaction
On focus, users can type directly into the input field. Any existing text in the input is highlighted on focus and will be replaced when the user begins typing. (Existing text in a text area is not highlighted on focus; instead the cursor is placed at the start or the user’s prior point of interaction.) Users can interact inside text inputs and text areas using standard arrow keys and modifiers (
Ctrl
Option
Users can move around in text inputs and text areas using arrows keys and modifiers.
Labeling and helper text
Carbon programmatically surfaces both the input’s label and any helper text to assistive technologies such as screen readers. Any error messages for text inputs are also accessibly revealed.
Labels and helper text are accessibly provided.
Development considerations
Keep these considerations in mind if you are modifying Carbon or creating a custom component.
- Labels are properly associated with inputs using the attribute.for
- Helper text is surfaced to assistive technology through .aria-describedby
Accessibility testing statusFor every latest release, Carbon runs tests on all components to meet the accessibility requirements. These different statuses report the work that Carbon has done in the back end. These tests appear only when the components are stable.
For every latest release, Carbon runs tests on all components to meet the accessibility requirements. These different statuses report the work that Carbon has done in the back end. These tests appear only when the components are stable.
Latest version: | Framework: React (@carbon/react)
| Component | Accessibility test | Status | Link to source code |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text input | Test(s) that ensure the initial render state of a component is accessible. | Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations. | GitHub link |
| Tests that ensure additional states of the component are accessible. This could be interactive states of a component or its multiple variants. | Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations. | ||
| Tests that ensure focus is properly managed, and all interactive functions of a component have a proper keyboard-accessible equivalent. | Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations. | ||
| This manual testing ensures that the visual information on the screen is properly conveyed and read correctly by screen readers such as JAWS, VoiceOver, and NVDA. | A human has manually tested this component, e.g. screen reader testing. | ||
| Text area | Test(s) that ensure the initial render state of a component is accessible. | Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations. | GitHub link |
| Tests that ensure additional states of the component are accessible. This could be interactive states of a component or its multiple variants. | Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations. | ||
| Tests that ensure focus is properly managed, and all interactive functions of a component have a proper keyboard-accessible equivalent. | Passes all automated tests with no reported accessibility violations. | ||
| This manual testing ensures that the visual information on the screen is properly conveyed and read correctly by screen readers such as JAWS, VoiceOver, and NVDA. | A human has manually tested this component, e.g. screen reader testing. | ||
| Fluid text input | Test(s) that ensure the initial render state of a component is accessible. | Automated or manual testing has been temporarily deferred. | GitHub link |
| Tests that ensure additional states of the component are accessible. This could be interactive states of a component or its multiple variants. | Automated or manual testing has been temporarily deferred. | ||
| Tests that ensure focus is properly managed, and all interactive functions of a component have a proper keyboard-accessible equivalent. | Test data is either not available or not applicable for this component state. | ||
| This manual testing ensures that the visual information on the screen is properly conveyed and read correctly by screen readers such as JAWS, VoiceOver, and NVDA. | A human has manually tested this component, e.g. screen reader testing. | ||
| Fluid text area | Test(s) that ensure the initial render state of a component is accessible. | Automated or manual testing has been temporarily deferred. | GitHub link |
| Tests that ensure additional states of the component are accessible. This could be interactive states of a component or its multiple variants. | Automated or manual testing has been temporarily deferred. | ||
| Tests that ensure focus is properly managed, and all interactive functions of a component have a proper keyboard-accessible equivalent. | Test data is either not available or not applicable for this component state. | ||
| This manual testing ensures that the visual information on the screen is properly conveyed and read correctly by screen readers such as JAWS, VoiceOver, and NVDA. | Test data is either not available or not applicable for this component state. |