How can I make a completely keyboard accessible sketch widget?

[Anonymous User]

Hi all,

We are trying to make out web app more accessible, and I have a few questions for how to make our sketch tools keyboard accessible.

Firstly, is there a keyboard shortcut already for starting a sketch? I found the ones for adding vertices but now would like to start the sketch of a polygon or line using only a keyboard.

Secondly, is there a keyboard control for selecting the graphic to edit, and then to control the transforms etc with keyboard only?

Lastly, do you have any recommendations for starting the drawing at a specific point? E.g. with a mouse you would usually click where you want to start, or move the cursor and then can use the keyboard controls. After calling mapView.focus() how can I get the cursor into position on the mapView to start sketching?

Thanks in advance!

Alex Dunham

[Anonymous User]

Hi Alex,

At a previous Esri DevSummit, I learned Geocortex has built some accessibility features for keyboard and screen reader users. Here is a demo video: Geocortex Accessibility:Web Maps for Everyone on Vimeo. The demo of their accessibility features is from 8:00 to 13:13 in the video, including a keyboard interaction pattern for drawing shapes on the map.

Hope this helps!

[Anonymous User]

That is awesome, thank you! Excited to get building!

Out of interest, will there be any a11y workshops at dev summit 2020?

[Anonymous User]

I think yes. Feel free to share the topics you are interested in and we can try to include them in the presentation.

[Anonymous User]

Wonderful! I think for me I'm interested in next level a11y work, beyond the standard web page requirements, and more specific to building widgets etc with the Esri JS API that are fully accessible.