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JavaScript/jQuery 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.

Keyboard Navigation

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

Key Action
Alt + ↓ Opens the drop-down menu.
Alt + ↑ / Esc Closes the drop-down menu.
↑ / ↓ 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
JavaScript
function registerKeyHandlers () {
    const autocomplete = $("#autocompleteContainer").dxAutocomplete("instance");
    autocomplete.registerKeyHandler("backspace", function(e) {
        // The argument "e" contains information on the event
    });
    autocomplete.registerKeyHandler("space", function(e) {
        // ...
    });
}
Angular
TypeScript
import { ..., ViewChild, AfterViewInit } from '@angular/core';
import { DxAutocompleteModule, DxAutocompleteComponent } from 'devextreme-angular';
// ...
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 on the event
        });
        this.autocomplete.instance.registerKeyHandler('space', function(e) {
            // ...
        });
    }
}
@NgModule({
    imports: [
        // ...
        DxAutocompleteModule
    ],
    // ...
})
Vue
<template>
    <DxAutocomplete :ref="myAutocompleteRef" />
</template>
<script>
import 'devextreme/dist/css/dx.light.css';

import DxAutocomplete from 'devextreme-vue/autocomplete';

const myAutocompleteRef = 'my-autocomplete';

export default {
    components: {
        DxAutocomplete
    },
    data() {
        return {
            myAutocompleteRef
        }
    },
    computed: {
        autocomplete: function() {
            return this.$refs[myAutocompleteRef].instance;
        }
    },
    mounted: function() {
        this.autocomplete.registerKeyHandler('backspace', function(e) {
            // The argument "e" contains information on the event
        });
        this.autocomplete.registerKeyHandler('space', function(e) {
            // ...
        });
    }
}
</script>
React
App.js
import React from 'react';
import 'devextreme/dist/css/dx.light.css';

import { Autocomplete } from 'devextreme-react/autocomplete';

class App extends React.Component {
    constructor(props) {
        super(props);

        this.autocompleteRef = React.createRef();
    }

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

    get autocomplete() {
        return this.autocompleteRef.current.instance();
    }

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

export default App;

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.