Angular Autocomplete - Accessibility

Accessibility Features Overview

NOTE

The overall accessibility level of your application depends on the AutoComplete features that you use.

Accessibility Requirement	Support Level
Right-to-Left Support
Keyboard Navigation Support
Screen Reader Support
Contrast Color Theme
Mobile Device Support
Lighthouse Accessibility Validation
Axe Accessibility Validation
WAVE Accessibility Validation
Section 508 Support
WCAG 2.x Support

- All component features meet the requirement
- Some component features may not meet the requirement
- Accessibility requirement is not supported

Accessibility Standards Compliance

The AutoComplete component meets a variety of Section 508 and WCAG 2.x compliance standards. Known exceptions:

Section 508 criteria	WCAG 2.x criteria	Exception description
501 (Web)(Software) 504.2 (Authoring Tool) 602.3 (Support Docs)	1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA) 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA 2.1 and 2.2)	AutoComplete does not support Windows High Contrast themes.

The component also complies with the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) directives.

Keyboard Navigation

A user can use the following keys to interact with the AutoComplete component:

Key	Action
Alt + Down Arrow	Opens the drop-down menu.
Alt + Up Arrow / Esc	Closes the drop-down menu.
Up Arrow / Down Arrow	Moves focus to the previous/next menu item.
Page Up / Page Down	Moves focus to the first/last menu item.
Enter	Selects focused menu item.

Use the registerKeyHandler(key, handler) method to implement a custom handler for a key.

jQuery

index.js

const autocomplete = $('#autocompleteContainer').dxAutocomplete('instance');

autocomplete.registerKeyHandler('backspace', function(e) {
    // The argument 'e' contains information about the event
});
autocomplete.registerKeyHandler('space', function(e) {
    // ...
});

Angular

app.component.ts

import { ViewChild, AfterViewInit } from '@angular/core';
import { DxAutocompleteComponent } from 'devextreme-angular/ui/autocomplete';

@Component({
    imports: [DxAutocompleteComponent],
    // ...
})
export class AppComponent implements AfterViewInit {
    @ViewChild(DxAutocompleteComponent, { static: false }) autocomplete!: DxAutocompleteComponent;
    // Prior to Angular 8
    // @ViewChild(DxAutocompleteComponent) autocomplete: DxAutocompleteComponent;

    ngAfterViewInit () {
        this.autocomplete.instance.registerKeyHandler('backspace', function(e) {
            // The argument "e" contains information about the event
        });
        this.autocomplete.instance.registerKeyHandler('space', function(e) {
            // ...
        });
    }
}

Vue

Code

<template>
    <DxAutocomplete ref="autocompleteRef" />
</template>

<script setup lang="ts">
import { onMounted, ref } from 'vue';
import { DxAutocomplete } from 'devextreme-vue/autocomplete';

const autocompleteRef = ref<DxAutocomplete | null>(null);

onMounted(() => {
    autocompleteRef.value.instance.registerKeyHandler('backspace', function(e) {
        // The argument "e" contains information about the event
    });
    autocompleteRef.value.instance.registerKeyHandler('space', function(e) {
        // ...
    });
})

</script>

React

App.tsx

import React, { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Autocomplete, type AutocompleteRef } from 'devextreme-react/autocomplete';

function App() {
    const autocompleteRef = useRef<AutocompleteRef>(null);

    useEffect(() => {
        const autocomplete = autocompleteRef.current.instance();
        autocomplete.registerKeyHandler('backspace', function(e) {
            // The argument "e" contains information about the event
        });
        autocomplete.registerKeyHandler('space', function(e) {
            // ...
        });
    }, []);

    return (
        <Autocomplete ref={autocompleteRef} />
    );
}

Screen Reader Support

The AutoComplete component supports screen readers and complies to WAI-ARIA standards.

To improve accessibility, use the inputAttr property to specify aria-label for the component. You do not need to specify aria-label if you use label.