Accessibility question, validation errors

[LLLLLLL]

I'm wondering the best way to handle validation messages for blind people, or sight-impaired.

 

In my application, the situation on a save with errors is:

1. User clicks save
2. AJAX call goes to save the record; wait bar appears on the page's status bar
3. Error is returned. The wait bar changes to show "Error on save"
4. Below the status bar, each field name is listed with the appropriate error message. ("Name - Cannot be blank" or whatever)
5. Within the fields themselves, the same message is shown again. (Next to the "Name" label on the page, "cannot be blank" would show up.)

This functionality is great for sighted people. But for non-sighted, I'm not sure exactly how to handle it. Should an error become "selected" or something? I mean, it's just a div. I don't really have the answer.

 

I posted this in general HTML but it could frankly be AJAX or JS or something. I think HTML is probably the most correct.

[kicken]

I don't have any direct experience in this area, so I can't really comment on what works or doesn't work. There are some guidelines about creating accessible documents you could check into for suggestions.

 

What I would suggest is that you get some of the commonly used screen reading software and simply try various methods to see how well they work. Trying various software would best let you figure out how it handles things like dynamically added content.

 

At minimum you should probably set focus to the first field which has an error by calling it's .focus() method. I would guess that should trigger the label for that field to be read again along with any text you may have added.