[Bug 11473] New: Clairfy proper tabindex usage

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=11473

           Summary: Clairfy proper tabindex usage
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Windows NT
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec (editor: Ian Hickson)
        AssignedTo: ian@hixie.ch
        ReportedBy: peter.winnberg@gmail.com
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org,
                    public-html@w3.org


Using the tabindex attribute can be problematic as shown below. Because of this
I suggest that advice on how to use it properly is added to the specification
or that the tabindex attribute is marked as deprecated.

Take this example, a page with 2 navigation lists and then the main content of
the page (in that order in the source). The first list has a fixed width and is
floated left. The second list also has a fixed width but it floated right. This
gives us a page with one navigation list in the left column, the main content
in the middle column, and another navigation list in the right column.

Now if I use the keyboard to "tab" through this page it would go from the left
column, then to the right column, and then to the middle column. If I wanted it
to go in this order, left, middle, and then right column then this could be
done using the tabindex attribute. However this is where it gets problematic
because using the tabindex to do this would also change the "tab order" when
the page is viewed with a different style sheet or without one.

Without tabindex:
http://peterwinnberg.name/tests/html5-tabindex-1.xhtml 

Tabindex is used to get left, middle, and then right "tab order":
http://peterwinnberg.name/tests/html5-tabindex-2.xhtml

Also, using a negative value on tabindex can make the content inaccessible for
anyone that is using an input device that is affected by sequential focus
navigation.

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Received on Sunday, 5 December 2010 09:53:01 UTC