[ToggleButton][ToggleButtonGroup] Improve accessibility of ToggleButton and ToggleButtonGroup

[simshaun]

Summary 💡

I'm opening this issue as a continuation of discussion that was initiated in #17187.

ToggleButton and ToggleButtonGroup elements should be marked with appropriate role and aria attributes depending on their usage.

Copying part of my comment from #17187, this is what I envision:

• ToggleButtonGroup exclusive selection:
  • ToggleButtonGroup has role="group" and aria-label="......" attributes
  • ToggleButtons have role="menuitemradio", aria-checked="true/false", and maybe aria-label attributes.
• ToggleButtonGroup multiple selection:
  • ToggleButtonGroup has role="group" and aria-label="......" attributes
  • ToggleButtons have role="menuitemcheckbox", aria-checked="true/false", and, if necessary, aria-label="...." attributes
• Standalone ToggleButton:
  • ToggleButton has role="button", aria-pressed="true/false", and maybe aria-label.

It would be great if somebody with more experience in accessibility could chime in.

Examples 🌈

A reference example: http://jongund.github.io/oaa-examples/examples/menubar/menubar-2/menubar-2.html (Jon Gunderson does a lot of work on W3C Aria Practices. I'd consider him a reliable source.)

FWIW, Angular Material's example uses role="group" on their ToggleButtonGroup and role="button" on their ToggleButtons. Their docs only have an example of exclusive selection though. I haven't bothered seeing what they do in a multiple selection scenario, though they describe it: https://material.angular.io/components/button-toggle/overview#accessibility

https://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/roles

Motivation 🔦

Improve accessibility.

[simshaun]

I've been researching this further and found https://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/examples/toolbar/toolbar.html

In their example, they don't mark up the Bold/Italic/Underline group as role="group". I wonder if that is intentional. The toolbar itself describes the purpose "Text Formatting", but apparently a group can be useful for screen magnifiers as well.. I opened an issue in their repo to find out.

---

Further, their exclusive selection group (the Left/Center/Right alignment buttons) are marked as role="radiogroup" and role="radio".

It's important to note that their buttons can't be toggled off. One is always selected, so I'm not sure how compatible that example is with Material-UI's exclusive selection behavior where the selected ToggleButton can still be toggled off.

[eps1lon]

This is probably something we want to punt on until react Flare is concluded. Right now focus managment requires a lot of refs and imperative APIs. From what I can tell these problems get a lot easier with the new event system. Right now everything dealing with refs is a bit sketchy since we have to keep an eye on concurrent react.

[eps1lon]

Concerning the roles:
It seems like there is no such thing as a group of toggle buttons with regard to a11y. At that point they are purely visual and should be treated either as radio buttons (exclusive selection) or checkboxes (multi-select). The menu prefix is only applied if you have enhanced keyboard navigation implemented (arrow keys + home/end).

So if we discount keyboard navigation we have

1. <ToggleButton /> => <button aria-pressed />
2. <ToggleButtonGroup><ToggleButton /></ToggleButtonGroup> => <div role="radiogroup"><button role="radio" /></div>
3. <ToggleButtonGroup multiple><ToggleButton /></ToggleButtonGroup> => <button role="checkbox" /> though WAI-ARIA practices use <button aria-pressed />

It seems like checkboxes or togglebuttons are not supposed to have group characteristics. We would need to check how assistive technology treats a generic role="group" around checkboxes/togglebuttons which is currently out of scope for us. Simply following the WAI-ARIA implementation does sound viable though.

[mbrookes]

At that point they are purely visual and should be treated either as radio buttons (exclusive selection) or checkboxes (multi-select)

I was of the same opinion, until @oliviertassinari suggested otherwise (without saying why), and some further research led me to this article, which makes a fair case against using form controls (at least concerning the multiple selection toggle-buttons):

The trouble with using form elements is their longstanding association with the collection of data. That is, checkboxes and radio buttons are established as controls for designating values. When a user checks a checkbox, they may just be switching a state, but they may suspect they are also choosing a value for submission.

https://inclusive-components.design/toggle-button/

However it doesn't explain how you would communicate that selecting one toggle-button deselects another for exclusive selection toggle-buttons, if they are not identified as a radio buttons.

[oliviertassinari]

@mbrookes I would encourage that we have a close look at how ckeditor and tiny mce handles the concern. They have been here for a decade, I would expect that they spend a reasonable amount of time on the topic. At least, to a level that matches the importance of the concern.

[eps1lon]

I'm missing that part as well. From a UX standpoint toggle buttons are meant for switching state + submitting it. For example if you have a dark mode switch on your site it should be a toggle button if a click immediately applies the styles. It should only be a switch if you're on a settings page and have a separate "save settings" button. For me personally https://uxplanet.org/checkbox-vs-toggle-switch-7fc6e83f10b8 made the most sense for explaining when a toggle button should be used.

However this distinction cannot be expressed for screen reader users if you have a group of toggle buttons where only one can be selected. WAI-ARIA implements this with radio buttons but those are used in a form with a submit button as well.

It basically requires working with screen reader implementors to convey these different UX patterns. I think <button role="radio" /> comes very close to the origins of this pattern (see actual play+pause radio buttons).

I would expect that they spend a reasonable amount of time on the topic.

This is a dangerous assumption. The time a thing has existed does not imply many time was spent iterating on that thing.

[mbrookes]

@eps1lon I think you might be mixing up three different things here: toggle button, switch and checkbox. (There is a distinct ARIA role for switch separate to button pressed="true | false".

The UX Planet article only addresses the latter two.

if you have a dark mode switch on your site it should be a toggle button

According to the UX Planet article, in the particular context in which it is used, that should be a switch.

It should only be a switch if you're on a settings page and have a separate "save settings" button

According to the UX Planet article, that should be a checkbox, which concurs with the paragraph I quoted above, and makes good old common sense. You could also infer the reverse - checkboxes should be used to apply state without a separate submit button.

I think <button role="radio" /> comes very close

It certainly seems to most appropriate pattern under the circumstances, but I would love to hear (or read) some expert opinion. @Heydon any thoughts?

the origins of this pattern (see actual play+pause radio buttons).

Historical nitpick: the origins, as the name suggests, are from radios, where the toggle button would select a pre-tuned radio station. With a reel-to-reel tape player (and later cassette player and early VCR with mechanical switches) on the other hand, the pause button was independent of the play / record buttons - turning on "pause" didn't disengage "play", "stop" did; the difference being that play and stop mechanically engaged and disengaged the play-head, where pause simply stopped spooling the tape.

[eps1lon]

The UX Planet article only addresses the latter two.

I totally read that as toggle button because that's the only thing that would make sense. If a switch immediately commits the state then where is the distinction to toggle button? So yeah I misinterpreted that article when it comes to switches vs toggle buttons since it never acknowledges toggle buttons. It only talks about toggle switches (which is a tautology to me since a switch can only ever be toggled).

the pause button was independent of the play / record buttons - turning on "pause" didn't disengage "play"

Yeah I did mix up some words here. What I meant was that the play/pause for a cassette are what to multi-selectable toggle button group is while the rest is the classic toggle button group or rather what is expressed in the WAI-ARIA implementation: radio buttons. The native radio buttons don't look anything like actual radio buttons to me. Real radio buttons are more like toggle buttons to me which is expressed by aria-pressed while native radio buttons or checkboxes have aria-selected/checked.

I'm kind of focusing on the word "button" here which means clicking it triggers an action e.g. commits a change. With that meaning radio buttons are almost always not suited for forms since you usually select them and then submit which is already doable with a listbox. Depending on multiselectable you would have the native radio buttons or checkboxes. I could go on but so many of these concepts are mixed and depending on where or when you started learning native UI elements you understand them differently. This is why I prefer specifications for these things since native UI elements (especially in browsers) are such a rabbit hole.