[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #32170: List table: sortable column headers accessibility

[WordPress Trac]

#32170: List table: sortable column headers accessibility
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 Reporter:  afercia         |       Owner:  afercia
     Type:  defect (bug)    |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  normal          |   Milestone:  4.3
Component:  Administration  |     Version:  4.2
 Severity:  normal          |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  needs-patch     |     Focuses:  ui, accessibility
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Comment (by rianrietveld):

 @afercia and I have been brainstorming and we came up with the following
 idea:

 We make a drop down menu above the list table and add the rows that can be
 sorted, like
 {{{
 <option>Title ascending</option>
 <option>Title descending</option>
 <option>Comments descending</option>
 <option>Comments ascending</option>
 }}}

 Then we hide this drop down menu with screen reader text.

 The advantage is that a screen reader user now can tell by the selected
 option, how the table is sorted.
 The main reason for removing this info outside header (TH) is because else
 it will read out for every cell in the table.

 Then, to reduce the noise for screen readers even more we can add aria-
 hidden to <span class="sorting-indicator"></span> to prevent the dash icon
 to be read out

 {{{
 <span class="sorting-indicator" aria-hidden="true"></span>
 }}}

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/32170#comment:12>
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