Accessibility in EJ2 TypeScript Mention control

24 Jan 20247 minutes to read

Web accessibility makes web content and web applications more accessible for people with disabilities. Mention control provides built-in compliance with WAI-ARIA specifications. The WAI-ARIA support is achieved using the attributes such as aria-selected and aria-activedescendent.

The Mention component followed the accessibility guidelines and standards, including ADA, Section 508, WCAG 2.2 standards, and WCAG roles that are commonly used to evaluate accessibility.

The accessibility compliance for the Mention 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 Yes
Mobile Device Support Yes
Keyboard Navigation Support Yes
Accessibility Checker Validation Yes
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.

WAI-ARIA attributes

The Mention control uses the Listbox role where each list item has an option role. The following ARIA attributes denote the Mention state.

Properties Functionalities
aria-selected Indicates the selected option.
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 Mention without interruptions.

Keyboard shortcuts Actions
Arrow Down Selects the first item in the Mention list. Otherwise, selects the item next to the currently selected item.
Arrow Up Selects the item previous to the currently selected one.
Esc(Escape) Closes the popup list when it is in an open state.
Enter Selects the focused item, and when it is in an open state the popup list closes.
Tab Focuses on the next TabIndex element on the page when the popup is closed. Otherwise, inserts the selected popup list item and closes the popup list. 
import { Mention } from '@syncfusion/ej2-dropdowns';

// defined the array of complex data
let employeeData: { [key: string]: Object }[] = [
    { Name: 'Andrew Fuller', ID: '1' },
    { Name: 'Janet Leverling', ID: '2' },
    { Name: 'Laura Callahan', ID: '3' },
    { Name: 'Margaret Peacock', ID: '4' },
    { Name: 'Anne Dodsworth', ID: '5' }
];

// initialize Mention control
let mentionObject: Mention = new Mention({
    //set the data to dataSource property
    dataSource: employeeData,
    // maps the appropriate column to fields property
    fields: { text: 'Name', value: 'ID' }
});

// render initialized Mention
mentionObject.appendTo('#mentionElement');
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">

<head>
    <title>Essential JS 2 Mention</title>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
    <meta name="description" content="Typescript UI Controls" />
    <meta name="author" content="Syncfusion" />
    <link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-base/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-inputs/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <link href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/27.2.2/ej2-dropdowns/styles/material.css" rel="stylesheet" />
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.38/system.js"></script>
    <script src="systemjs.config.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/syncfusion-helper.js" type ="text/javascript"></script>
</head>

<body>
    <div id='loader'>LOADING....</div>
    <div id='container' style="width:200px;">
        <label style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: 600;">Comments</label>
        <!--element which is the Mention target to list the suggestions-->
        <div id="mentionElement" style="min-height: 100px; border: 1px solid #D7D7D7; border-radius: 4px; padding: 8px; font-size: 14px; width: 600px;"></div>
    </div>
</body>

</html>

Ensuring accessibility

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

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

See also