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Accessibility in ASP.NET MVC DropDownList control

The DropDownList control has been designed, keeping in mind the WAI-ARIA specifications, and applies the WAI-ARIA roles, states, and properties along with keyboard support. This control is characterized by complete keyboard interaction support and ARIA accessibility support that makes it easy for people who use assistive technologies (AT) or those who completely rely on keyboard navigation.

ARIA attributes

The DropDownList control uses the Listbox role, and each list item has an option role. The following ARIA attributes denote the DropDownList state.

Properties Functionalities
aria-haspopup Indicates whether the DropDownList input element has a popup list or not.
aria-expanded Indicates whether the popup list has expanded or not.
aria-selected Indicates the selected option.
aria-readonly Indicates the readonly state of the DropDownList element.
aria-disabled Indicates whether the DropDownList control is in a disabled state or not.
aria-activedescendent This attribute holds the ID of the active list item to focus its descendant child element.
aria-owns This attribute contains the ID of the popup list to indicate popup as a child element.

Keyboard interaction

You can use the following key shortcuts to access the DropDownList without interruptions.

Keyboard shortcuts Actions
Arrow Down Selects the first item in the DropDownList when no item selected. Otherwise, selects the item next to the currently selected item.
Arrow Up Selects the item previous to the currently selected one.
Page Down Scrolls down to the next page and selects the first item when popup list opens.
Page Up Scrolls up to the previous page and selects the first item when popup list opens.
Enter Selects the focused item, and when it is in an open state the popup list closes. Otherwise, toggles the popup list.
Tab Focuses on the next TabIndex element on the page when the popup is closed. Otherwise, closes the popup list and remains the focus of the control.
Shift + tab Focuses on the previous TabIndex element on the page when the popup is closed. Otherwise, closes the popup list and remains the focus of the control.
Alt + Down Opens the popup list.
Alt + Up Closes the popup list.
Esc(Escape) Closes the popup list when it is in an open state and the currently selected item remains the same.
Home Selects the first item.
End Selects the last item.

In the below sample, focus the DropDownList control using alt+t keys.

razor
accessibility.cs
@Html.EJS().DropDownList("games").Placeholder("Select a game").PopupHeight("200px").DataSource((IEnumerable<object>)ViewBag.data).Render()

<script>
    document.onkeyup = function (e) {
        if (e.altKey && e.keyCode === 84 /* t */) {
            var dropObj = document.getElementById("games"); //to get dropdown list object
            dropObj.ej2_instances[0].focusIn(); // call the focusIn method to focus the element.
        }
    };
</script>
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using WebApplication1.Models;

namespace WebApplication1.Controllers
{
    public class DropDownListController : Controller
    {
        public ActionResult accessibility()
        {
           ViewBag.data = new string[] { "Badminton", "Basketball", "Cricket", "Football", "Golf", "Gymnastics", "Hockey", "Tennis" };
            return View();
        }
    }
}
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