Gradebook: Keyboard navigation does not reach column headers

Hi Chris, that is expected behavior when leaving the tool. The primary issue here was the student filter redrawing the ui on any keyup event, and now it only does so when the text is actually changed in the filter, will set this to verified per your testing.

Per Earle’s request, retested this issue on trunk/master (Maria DB branch) using JAWS+Chrome and was able to verify that the “Student Filter” text field is no longer causing the changed sort order to revert back to its default state (i.e. after pressing enter on the “Students” or “Course Grade” options to change their sort order from ascending to descending, then using the keyboard/screen reader to navigate through the “Student Filter” text field to move focus back into the Grades data table)

Note: While the issue with the “Student Filter” text field appears to have been fixed/resolved, there is still no way to get the changed sort order to save. As soon as you end your browsing session, or navigate to another Tool and then open Gradebook back up, the Grades data table is displaying the default sort order again??

It would appear that the student filter should only force a redraw when the text actually changes? Submitting a PR for this.

Tested this issue again on trunk/master (Maria DB branch) using JAWS+Chrome and continuing to observe the same issues with the “Student” and “Course Grade” sort order. I am able to navigate onto the words “Students” or “Course Grade” down in the Grades data table area and press enter. When the page refreshes, I can use the control+end keyboard command to jump down to the bottom of the page, and then up arrow to where the list of Students appears. I am able to verify that the sort order has changed. However, as soon as I close out of the page or end my browsing session, none of the changes will save. Same goes for if I navigate down through the “Filter Students” text field which will also cause the sort order to revert back to its default state. The “Course Grade” sort order option is behaving the same way.

I am able to press enter on the menus for the various Gradebook items to access their different options, so that is a non-issue for me, however, there’s a chance that someone strictly using a keyboard (without a screen reader enabled) is not able to get those menus to work, so we might want a sighted user to go back and test that particular issue again.

As follow-up to our discussion during the 12/19/23 Core Team call about the loss of functionality RE: using the keyboard to change the sort order of the “Student” and Course Grade” columns, and in an attempt to try and summarize where we’re at with things…

Assumptions:

1—During our 22.X testing we observed/documented that a keyboard/screen reader user could press enter on the “Student” and/or “Course Grade” (static text) in the Grades data table to change the sort order.

2—While less than  optimal/not super intuitive, there was at least a work around for using the keyboard to perform this action (i.e. change the sort order of the “Student” and “Course Grade” columns)

3—For 23.X, the ability to use the keyboard to change the sort order of the “Student” and “Course Grade” columns, and get these changes to stick, no longer appears to be working (i.e. while a keyboard/screen reader user can still change the sort order by pressing enter on the “Student” or “Course Grade” static text in the Grades data table, the changes end up reverting back to their default state/original order once you hit escape or navigate through the “Filter Students” box)

4—Therefore, the problem we are trying to solve is two-fold—first, we need to make it so that keyboard/screen reader users are able to easily change the sort order, and second, that the system allows for these changes to be saved.

5—If however, it was never intended for user’s to be able to change and save the sort order of the “Student” and/or “Course Grade” columns (which I don’t believe to be the case—because why else would you include a feature like this?? Remember, you used to be able to change/save the sort order on 22.X, so this really boils down to a loss in functionality) then we can just focus on making it easier for keyboard/screen reader user to perform the first task, (temporarily) changing the sort order.

Observations/Suggestions:

1--I can’t say for certain, but it appears that the “Filter Students” box may have something to do with why the sort order is reverting back to its default state/original order (I know I hear my screen reader say “clear student filter” as I navigate through that portion of the page, so perhaps something is being triggered when trying to bypass this option??)

2—If you watch my demo videos, you can see where I am able to use my keyboard to change the sort order, and I am able to verify this, as long as I use control+end to jump down to the bottom of the page, and then use my up arrow key to navigate back into the Grades data table to check the order. However, as soon as I navigate through the “Filter Students” box the sort order reverts back to its default state/original order.

3--Short of figuring out what is going on with the “Filter Students” box (if that is indeed, what I’m suspecting is part of the problem) what do you think about just introducing a couple of new, dedicated buttons into the Grades data table for “Change Sort Order”?? One under the existing dropdown menu for “Student” and another under the existing dropdown menu for “Course Grade”??

4--Alternatively, couldn’t we just add these as options under those respective dropdown menus?? (I know, I know—easy for me, the non-technical/wanna-be -developer guy to say😊

Thoughts??