Accessibility in the Angular Rich Text Editor Component

16 Jan 202515 minutes to read

The Rich Text Editor component is designed with accessibility in mind, adhering to WAI-ARIA specifications and implementing ARIA roles, states, and properties. This ensures full accessibility support, making it user-friendly for people who rely on assistive technologies (AT) or keyboard navigation.

The accessibility compliance for the Rich Text Editor component is outlined below.

Accessibility Criteria Compatibility
WCAG 2.2 Support Yes
Section 508 Support Yes
Screen Reader Support Yes
Right-To-Left Support Yes
Color Contrast Intermediate
Mobile Device Support Yes
Keyboard Navigation Support Yes
Accessibility Checker Validation Intermediate
Axe-core Accessibility Validation Yes
Yes - All features of the component meet the requirement.
Intermediate - Some features of the component do not meet the requirement.
No - The component does not meet the requirement.

ARIA Attributes

The toolbar in the Rich Text Editor is assigned the role of ‘Toolbar’ and includes the following attributes.

Property Functionalities  
role=”toolbar” This attribute added to the ToolBar element describes the actual role of the element.  
aria-orientation Indicates the ToolBar orientation. Default value is horizontal.  
aria-haspopup Indicates the popup mode of the Toolbar. Default value is false. When popup mode is enabled, attribute value has to be changed to true.  
aria-disabled Indicates the disabled state of the toolbar.  
aria-owns Identifies an element to define a visual, functional, or contextual parent/child relationship between DOM elements when the DOM hierarchy cannot represent the relationship. In the Rich Text Editor, the attribute contains the ID of the Rich Text Editor to indicate the popup as a child element.  

For more details on Toolbar ARIA attributes, refer to the Accessibility of Toolbar documentation.

  • The Rich Text Editor element is assigned the role of application.
Property Functionalities
role=”application” This attribute added to the Rich Text Editor element describes the actual role of the element.
aria-disabled Indicates the disabled state of the ToolBar. 
import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { RichTextEditorModule, ToolbarSettingsModel, ToolbarService, LinkService, ImageService, HtmlEditorService, QuickToolbarService, TableService, PasteCleanupService } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-richtexteditor';
@Component({
    imports: [RichTextEditorModule],
    standalone: true,
    selector: 'app-root',
    template: `<ejs-richtexteditor #editor id='editor' [toolbarSettings]='tools'></ejs-richtexteditor>`,
    providers: [ToolbarService, LinkService, ImageService, HtmlEditorService, QuickToolbarService, TableService, PasteCleanupService]
})
export class AppComponent {
    public tools: ToolbarSettingsModel = {
        items: ['Bold', 'Italic', 'Underline', 'StrikeThrough',
            'FontName', 'FontSize', 'FontColor', 'BackgroundColor',
            'LowerCase', 'UpperCase', '|',
            'Formats', 'Alignments', 'OrderedList', 'UnorderedList',
            'Outdent', 'Indent', '|',
            'CreateLink', 'Image', '|', 'ClearFormat', 'Print',
            'SourceCode', 'FullScreen', '|', 'Undo', 'Redo']
    };
}
import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));

Keyboard Navigation

The Rich Text Editor component followed the keyboard interaction guideline, making it easy for people who use assistive technologies (AT) and those who completely rely on keyboard navigation. The following keyboard shortcuts are supported by the Rich Text Editor component.

HTML Formatting Shortcuts

You can use the following key shortcuts when the Rich Text Editor renders in HTML edit mode.

Actions Keyboard shortcuts
Toolbar focus Alt + f10
Insert link Ctrl + k
Insert audio Ctrl + Shift + a
Insert video Ctrl + Shift + v
Insert image Ctrl + Shift + i
Insert table Ctrl + Shift + e
Undo Ctrl + z
Redo Ctrl + y
Copy Ctrl + c
Cut Ctrl + x
Paste Ctrl + v
Bold Ctrl + b
Italic Ctrl + i
Underline Ctrl + u
Strikethrough Ctrl + Shift + s
Uppercase Ctrl + Shift + u
Lowercase Ctrl + Shift + l
Superscript Ctrl + Shift + =
Subscript Ctrl + =
Indents Ctrl + ]
Outdents Ctrl + [
HTML source Ctrl + Shift + h
Fullscreen Ctrl + Shift + f
Exit Fullscreen Esc
Justify center Ctrl + e
Justify full Ctrl + j
Justify left Ctrl + l
Justify right Ctrl + r
Clear format Ctrl + Shift + r
Ordered list Ctrl + Shift + o
Unordered list Ctrl + Alt + o
Format Painter Copy Alt + Shift + c
Format Painter Paste Alt + Shift + v
Format Painter Escape Esc

Customizing Shortcut Keys

You can customize shortcut keys using the formatter property.This allows you to configure custom key combinations for various actions in the Rich Text Editor. For example, you can set ctrl+q to open the Insert Hyperlink dialog.

import { Component } from '@angular/core';
import { RichTextEditorModule, ToolbarService, LinkService, ImageService, HtmlEditorService, QuickToolbarService, TableService, PasteCleanupService, IHtmlFormatterModel, HTMLFormatter } from '@syncfusion/ej2-angular-richtexteditor';

@Component({
  imports: [RichTextEditorModule],
  standalone: true,
  selector: 'app-root',
  template: `<ejs-richtexteditor id='editor' #sample [formatter]='formatter' [value]='value'>
  </ejs-richtexteditor>`,
  providers: [ToolbarService, LinkService, ImageService, HtmlEditorService, QuickToolbarService, TableService, PasteCleanupService]
})
export class AppComponent {
  public value: string = "<p>The Rich Text Editor triggers events based on its actions. </p><p> The events can be used as an extension point to perform custom operations.</p><ul><li>created - Triggers when the component is rendered.</li><li>change - Triggers only when editor is blurred and changes are done to the content.</li><li>focus - Triggers when editor is focused in.</li><li>blur - Triggers when editor is focused out.</li><li>actionBegin - Triggers before command execution using toolbar items or executeCommand method.</li><li>actionComplete - Triggers after command execution using toolbar items or executeCommand method.</li><li>destroyed – Triggers when the component is destroyed.</li></ul>";
  public customHTMLModel: IHtmlFormatterModel = { // formatter is used to configure the custom key
    keyConfig: {
      'insert-link': 'ctrl+q', // confite the desired key
    }
  };
  public formatter: HTMLFormatter = new HTMLFormatter(this.customHTMLModel); // to configure custom key
}
import { bootstrapApplication } from '@angular/platform-browser';
import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
import 'zone.js';
bootstrapApplication(AppComponent).catch((err) => console.error(err));

Markdown Formatting Shortcuts

You can use the following key shortcuts when the Rich Text Editor renders in Markdown edit mode

Actions Keyboard shortcuts
Toolbar focus Alt + f10
Insert link Ctrl + k
Insert image Ctrl + Shift + i
Insert table Ctrl + Shift + e
Undo Ctrl + z
Redo Ctrl + y
Copy Ctrl + c
Cut Ctrl + x
Paste Ctrl + v
Bold Ctrl + b
Italic Ctrl + i
Strikethrough Ctrl + Shift + s
Uppercase Ctrl + Shift + u
Lowercase Ctrl + Shift + l
Superscript Ctrl + Shift + =
Subscript Ctrl + =
Fullscreen Ctrl + Shift + f
Ordered list Ctrl + Shift + o
Unordered list Ctrl + Alt + o

Implementing Accessibility Best Practices

The Rich Text Editor component’s accessibility levels are ensured through an accessibility-checker and axe-core software tools during automated testing.

The accessibility compliance of the Rich Text Editor component is shown in the following sample. Open the sample in a new window to evaluate the accessibility of the Rich Text Editor component with accessibility tools.

See Also