adobe / adobe/react-spectrum

[RAC Feature Request]: Opt-in single tab stop for DatePicker / DateField / TimeField

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#9,743 2 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
DatePicker good first issue help wanted
Dominant language
TypeScript
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Description

### Provide a general summary of the feature here

Introduce an opt-in prop for date and time field components that implements a single tab stop pattern.

### 🤔 Expected Behavior?

- Tab: Moves focus into the field (landing on the first segment or the entire input).
- Arrow Left / Right: Moves focus between the internal segments (like it does now already)
- Tab (again): Exits the field and moves to the next focusable element in the DOM.

### 😯 Current Behavior

Users have to press Tab key 3 to 4 times to navigate through a single date or time field.

### 🔦 Context

In data-entry heavy applications, requiring users to press the Tab key 3 to 4 times to navigate through a single date / time field causes significant "Tab fatigue." For power users filling out large forms, this default segmented tabbing behavior severely slows down keyboard navigation compared to standard text inputs.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start at the DatePicker, DateField, and TimeField component entry points and trace their current segmented keyboard and focus behavior. Define the opt-in single-tab-stop behavior consistently across the three components, preserving arrow-key movement between segments, and verify that Tab enters once and then exits to the next focusable element.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
react, typescript
Domain
accessibility, frontend
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
55/100

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