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Custom Checkbox with HTML & CSS

Nikhil Bobade on May 08, 2021

Hello, today I created a Simple custom checkbox using CSS & JS. Not great work but I hope you like this also comments about your thoughts. For ...

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GrahamTheDev • May 8 '21

Looks great but don't forget about accessibility!

By using display: none on your checkboxes you make it so you can't use a keyboard as there is nothing to focus!

This means people using screen readers (generally people with vision impairments) or people unable / who prefer not to use a mouse (generally people with mobility / accuracy issues - or screen reader users who cannot see the mouse position on the screen!) cannot use your checkboxes!

Don't worry the fix is straight forward.

Step 1:

Remove

.row label input[type="checkbox"] {
  display: none;
}

That way the checkboxes are focusable again.

Step 2:

Hide the checkboxes in a way that takes up no space. We do this with visually-hidden class that allows a screen reader to still access the information without interfering with the interface.

.row label input[type="checkbox"],
.visually-hidden { 
    border: 0;
    padding: 0;
    margin: 0;
    position: absolute !important;
    height: 1px; 
    width: 1px;
    overflow: hidden;
    clip: rect(1px 1px 1px 1px); /* IE6, IE7 - a 0 height clip, off to the bottom right of the visible 1px box */
    clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); /*maybe deprecated but we need to support legacy browsers */
    clip-path: inset(50%); /*modern browsers, clip-path works inwards from each corner*/
    white-space: nowrap; /* added line to stop words getting smushed together (as they go onto seperate lines and some screen readers do not understand line feeds as a space */
}

Step 3

Add a focus indicator! (preferably a nicer one than I added!

.row label input[type="checkbox"]:focus ~ .icon-box {
  outline: 4px solid white;
  transition: none;
}

Step 4

Profit!

No that is it, at that point that fixes the keyboard accessibility. 👍

Final thing on accessibility for you to explore at your leisure - colour contrast requirements. Your orange with white in front might be just a little too low contrast (as orange does not contrast well with white!).

Any questions just ask! ❤

Taufik Nurrohman • May 9 '21

There is another way:

<label tabindex="0">asdf</label>
<input tabindex="-1" type="checkbox">

GrahamTheDev • May 9 '21

The problem with that approach is semantics and the weird and wonderful compatibility world of web browser and screen reader combinations, landing on the label of a checkbox does not have the same semantic meaning as landing on the checkbox itself.

Some screen reader and browser combinations will not announce the checked state for example.

So it is certainly a good fix for keyboard accessibility, it is not so great from a screen reader and assistive tech perspective.

The other thing to consider is voice navigation, I do not know how something like "dragon naturally speaking" would behave with this. But as I do not know I cannot comment in any meaningful way other than an educated guess that this would not be very robust due to experience with Dragon not behaving well with workarounds.

I mean, Dragon even has problems with implicit labels so it shows how careful you sometimes have to be due to the scattered support across assistive tech.

Nikhil Bobade • May 9 '21

👍😃

Nikhil Bobade • May 9 '21

👍

Nikhil Bobade • May 9 '21

Thank you for beautiful suggestions whenever I use Checkbox that time I followed this 😊.

Cooper Riehl • May 8 '21

Looks good! I like the gradient background, it's a very subtle way to add some flavor to the boxes, as opposed to a single color.

Nikhil Bobade • May 9 '21

Thank you 😊 if you have a good idea for next post then comment I will definitely try that 😊

Cooper Riehl • May 9 '21

Based on this post, it seems like you already have some good ideas!

It would be cool to see a text box that expands as I type in it. So if I just enter a couple words, it stays small, but if I type an entire paragraph, it grows larger to give me more room to type.