[CSS3-UI] 'pointer-events', Focus, and Keyboard Navigation

Hi, folks-

It occurs to me that we need to address the effects of the 
'pointer-events' property [1] with regards to keyboard navigation (such 
as tabbing).

For example, if an author makes a particular element insensitive to 
pointer events (e.g., using 'pointer-events:none'), but it is still 
focusable, that will present a very different user experience when using 
keyboard versus mouse.   Maybe that could be done deliberately to 
benefit each interaction mode, but it may be done accidentally, leading 
to a confusing or frustrating keyboard experience.

I'm not necessarily suggesting that we yoke the two properties, nor that 
we add focusability implications to the 'pointer-events' property, but I 
do think we should discuss the implications and see how we want to 
define this.  Perhaps an informative note in the definition of the 
'pointer-events' property would help steer authors to think about how 
they are using this (such as a suggestion that if pointer-events are 
turned off, authors should also consider making the element not 
focusable, as well).

[1] http://dev.w3.org/csswg/css3-ui/#pointer-events

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, SVG, WebApps, and Web Events WGs

Received on Thursday, 23 December 2010 19:50:59 UTC