JAWS and virtual PC Cursor mode: is Jaws supposed to automatically switch to forms mode when encountering a dijit combobox?

Question

The reason I ask is: when I run Jaws 12 on IE9 and hit this page: http://archive.dojotoolkit.org/nightly/dojotoolkit/dijit/tests/form/_autoComplete.html

Jaws does not automatically switch to forms mode when I tab to the first combobox: US State test 1. It announces that it is an edit combobox but I cannot use down arrow or alt down arrow to navigate through the state options and pick a state. Is this expected behavior?

According to this blog: http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2010/10/jaws-support-for-aria/ Jaws is supposed to automatically switch to forms mode for edit inputs and alt down arrow is supposed to drop down the combobox, neither of which seems to be happening...

This is surprising since dijit widgets are supposed to be accessible...am I missing something here?

Answer 1

As a blind jaws user welcome to the wonderful world of cross browser accessibility quirks. I would say Jaws is supposed to automatically switch to forms mode when encountering a dijit combobox. Using Jaws 13 when I tab to the combo box in either Firefox 12 or Google chrome 18 Jaws automatically enters forms mode. If I navigate to the combobox using arrow keys Jaws does not automatically enter forms mode but this is the expected behavior based on the blog entry you have posted. The current computer I am on has IE 7 and I have behavior similar to yours. Forms mode is not entered when I tab to the combobox. Even when I tab to the combobox and hit enter forms mode is not activated. The only way for me to interact with the combobox is to navigate to it with arrow keys then hit enter. Doing this turns on forms mode and allows me to interact with it. I will test with IE 9 when I get a chance and update my answer with my results.