4.2 Developing Accessible Pages

Enable easy navigation of your app for users of assistive technology by properly configuring some common attributes of all your pages, such as the title, page mode, cursor focus, and reload on submit.

• Accessible Page Titles
  
• Accessible Page Modes
  
• Accessible Cursor Focus
  
• Accessible Reload on Submit
  

See Also:

• Right Pane of Page Designer (Property Editor) in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide
• Accessing Property Editor in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide

4.2.1 Accessible Page Titles

A good page title helps users of assistive technology understand the purpose of the page. Since the page title is usually the first thing a user of a screen reader hears when loading the page, every page title should be meaningful and unique.

Consider the following example. The title of a Form page should include some information about the record the user is currently editing, such as "Create / Edit Customer: [customer name]." In Page Designer, select the page in the Rendering tree and do the following in the Property Editor:

• To replace P1_CUSTOMER_NAME with the page item containing the item that best identifies the current record, in the Identification – Title field enter Create / Edit Customer: &P1_CUSTOMER_NAME., with the period included.
• Form pages have a Fetch Row process that fetches the row in the Execution Options. By default, this is set to fire after the page header (After Header). Change this to fire Before Header.

Tip:

You can review and update all page titles in an app with the Grid Edit of all Pages tool. You should review all titles for accuracy and meaning, especially different pages with the same title and null page titles.

See Also:

• Controlling When a Page Process Executes in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide
• Accessing Cross Page Utilities in Oracle APEX App Builder User’s Guide

4.2.2 Accessible Page Modes

Oracle APEX supports multiple page mode types:

• Normal
• Modal Dialog
• Non-Modal Dialog

All of these page types can be used and are coded to the accessibility standards.

For example, modal dialog pages follow guidelines for pages including constraining keyboard focus inside of the dialog and ensuring screen reader users only hear information about the current modal dialog page (and not the base page where the modal dialog page was launched).

4.2.3 Accessible Cursor Focus

The Navigation – Cursor Focus attribute specifies where the cursor appears for the user on page load. You can select from the following options:

• Do not focus cursor
• First item on page

Select Do not focus cursor to focus on nothing on page load.

Select First item on page to focus the cursor in the first field on the page on page load.

Oracle recommends setting your cursor focus to First item on page wherever your users want it most of the time, such as in a wizard that has multiple pages with multiple options on each page. Ensure that your First item on page design does not misplace important information that users could miss.

4.2.4 Accessible Reload on Submit

This attribute controls how errors display on the page. You can select from the following options:

• Always
• Only for Success

Oracle recommends using Only for Success. When Only for Success is selected, Oracle APEX renders errors on the client-side without reloading the entire page. This option is faster for all users, and if there are errors, screen reader users are immediately notified and read the error information because the error notification is using the ARIA role of alert.

Note:

Tabular form regions can only be set to Always. You cannot use this client-side error display on tabular form pages.

See Also:

Dealing with Validation Errors