- From: Jukka K. Korpela <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi>
- Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2003 09:13:39 +0200 (EET)
- To: wai <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
On Thu, 20 Feb 2003, Kerstin Goldsmith wrote: > I seem to recall hearing/seeing something about the idea of defaulting > the cursor focus into the first form field on a page as an ease-of-use > recommendation It's actually the other way around. Setting the focus may _disturb_ and confuse users. Since setting the focus is a Javascript operation, it is performed (if ever) after the page has loaded and has been at least preliminary rendered. As usual, unexpected delays are to be expected on the Internet; something might intervene and cause even several seconds' delay before the focusing takes place. Thus, in common use on screen, it may well happen that the user starts filling out a form and, as he has proceeded to, say, the fourth field, something happens and he is taken back to the first field. People with cognitive disabilities, and even people without them, can get very confused then. -- Jukka "Yucca" Korpela, http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/
Received on Friday, 21 February 2003 02:13:41 UTC