Level AAWCAG 2.2

2.5.7 Dragging Movements

All functionality that uses a dragging movement has a single-pointer alternative.

Why it matters

Motor impairments
Drag and drop requires fine motor control. Hand tremors make accurate dragging impossible.
Keyboard users
Keyboards generally can't perform dragging. An alternative is essential.
Screen readers
Visual drag operations are very hard to perform with a screen reader.
Touch devices
Dragging on small screens is imprecise, especially in sortable lists.

Live demo

Sortable list

It relies only on drag and drop, so keyboard and switch-device users cannot reorder the list.

  • 1Task A: Design review
  • 2Task B: Code implementation
  • 3Task C: Write tests
  • 4Task D: Update docs
Drag only with no alternative input method

Understanding through personas

Kobayashi (28) — Upper-limb amputation

I operate the keyboard with a mouth stick. Drag and drop is completely impossible. With up/down buttons, I can set my own task priorities.

Checkpoints

References