JavaScript/jQuery Tabs - Accessibility

Accessibility Features Overview

NOTE

The overall accessibility level of your application depends on the Tabs 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 Tabs 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)	Tabs do 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 Tabs component:

Key	Action
Left Arrow / Up Arrow or PageUp	Moves focus to the previous tab.
Right Arrow / Down Arrow or PageDown	Moves focus to the next tab.
Home	Moves focus to the first tab.
End	Moves focus to the last tab.
Enter Space	Selects the focused tab.
Shift + Mouse Wheel	Scrolls the tabs left/right if the scrollingEnabled property is true.

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

jQuery

index.js

const tabs = $('#tabsContainer').dxTabs('instance');

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

Angular

app.component.ts

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

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

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

Vue

Code

<template>
    <DxTabs ref="tabsRef" />
</template>

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

const tabsRef = ref<DxTabs | null>(null);

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

</script>

React

App.tsx

import React, { useRef, useEffect } from 'react';
import { Tabs, type TabsRef } from 'devextreme-react/tabs';

function App() {
    const tabsRef = useRef<TabsRef>(null);

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

    return (
        <Tabs ref={tabsRef} />
    );
}

Screen Reader Support

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