VoiceOver draws attention to confusing interfaces to search routines
A magnifying glass. Point, refrain from clicking. An on-screen word, "search". A spoken phrase, "search group". Click.
Or, a point and then a click on the icon plus a minuscule, inadvertent movement – not enough to move away from the icon – might produce the following speech:
"Search group. Search forum. Enter your search and hit enter. Search text field. Options group."
– all
before the first entry.
And so on. Try it for yourselves; enable VoiceOver, squint heavily and then approach the magnifying glass icon as if you had never before used the MacRumors Forums implementation of a magnifying glass
search group options group.
I'm invited to enter a search term. And again: enter. Before the first entry: know that it's a search text field. It's also an options group. Am I to double enter a search term into an options group field? What's a search group options group?
And/or if I click the icon twice, without double-clicking, the routine sounds very different.
I can go ahead check with friends and fellow testers who use Macs and who are registered blind … but without going that far, I'm fairly sure that the current arrangement is not nearly as accessible as it should be.
Background:
… I spent two weeks testing without realising the meaning of that cog. I neither needed nor noticed it.
If an accessibility issue affects, for example, VoiceOver: that issue will be noted separately.
