Disclosure: This draft was generated with AI and checked against the cited primary sources, with a separate AI editorial review. It was prepared for the FrameSprite team, which has a commercial interest in FrameSprite. Proposed examples are not executed tests unless explicitly identified as recorded fixture results.
Choose an explicit keyboard model for the contact sheet instead of making every frame a mouse-only target. A simple list of frame buttons and an interactive grid are different interfaces. Use the simpler model unless two-dimensional navigation materially helps the review task.
Key Takeaways
- Keep frame identity stable while sorting or filtering.
- Make selection and keyboard focus distinct.
- Implement the complete chosen interaction model.
A visual grid is not automatically an accessible grid
The WAI-ARIA grid pattern describes a composite interaction model with keyboard responsibilities. Adding a grid role to a group of thumbnails does not implement those behaviors.
For a small contact sheet, ordinary labeled buttons in a meaningful document order may be easier to maintain. For a large sheet, a grid can support efficient directional movement if navigation, focus management, and semantics are implemented together.
Define what each command does
Write down how a reviewer enters the sheet, moves between frames, selects a frame, opens details, and returns to the surrounding controls. Decide what arrow keys do at row boundaries and after filtering.
The keyboard criterion concerns operating functionality without requiring a pointing device. A reviewer should be able to inspect a frame and reach approval controls through the supported keyboard path.
Keep the focused frame identifiable using visible-focus guidance. A selected frame may remain selected while focus moves to a download button. Showing only one of those states makes navigation confusing.
Example: sorting by an error score
A contact sheet initially displays frames in playback order. The reviewer focuses frame 17, then sorts by an alignment score to inspect outliers. If focus remains at the same array position, it can now refer to a different frame.
Track focus by stable frame identity, not by the previous visual index. If the focused frame remains present, restore focus to its new location. If filtering removes it, move to an appropriate remaining control and make that change understandable.
Keep playback order available even when visual review uses another order. Sorting thumbnails must not silently change the exported sequence.
Test the real review path
A proposed task sequence is to enter the sheet, reach a named frame, inspect its metadata, filter results, restore the original view, and leave the sheet. Test with keyboard alone and then with the assistive technologies the tool claims to support.
Check focus after asynchronous thumbnail loading and after removal of a frame. A browser's default focus handling may not preserve the user's place when the focused element is replaced.
Acceptance should record the chosen interaction model and demonstrate that every review action remains reachable. Avoid describing a grid as accessible solely because it has ARIA attributes or a visible border.
This is a proposed browser-review workflow, not an executed keyboard or screen-reader test. It extends the content of a contact sheet into its interaction contract; it does not alter the underlying sprite frames.
Related workflow
See sprite team review contact sheet not preview for the adjacent task. Carry the animation handoff checklist with the release, and use the art reference board to retain visual intent.
Prepared by the FrameSprite Workflow Team. Editorial method · Corrections. Primary documentation checked 2026-10-20.
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