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Re: [DHTML Style Guide] Tablist: Revision of Tab proposal

From: David Bolter <david.bolter@utoronto.ca>
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:34:27 -0500
Message-ID: <49149843.5070601@utoronto.ca>
To: Joseph Scheuhammer <clown@utoronto.ca>
CC: James Nurthen <james.nurthen@oracle.com>, "wai-xtech@w3.org" <wai-xtech@w3.org>, earl johnson <earlj.biker@gmail.com>

Joseph Scheuhammer wrote:
>> >
>> >     * *Tab*
>> >           o When on an Accordion Header / Tab, each press of the tab key will
>> >             move the input focus in the following manner:
>> >                1. ...
>> >                2. Focus moves to the first interactive element in the Tab page
>> >                   or accordion panel. If the accordion panel for the currently
>> >                   selected accordion header is not visible pressing Tab will
>> >                   cause the accordion panel to expand.
>> >                3. ...
>> >
>>
>> Specifically, if focus is on an accordion header, and the associated tabpanel is 
>> not shown (aria-expanded = false), a Tab keystroke will open the associated 
>> tabpanel, and move focus to the first focusable item therein.
>>
>> Note on terminology:  "accordion" is a multi-selectable tablist; "tabbed pane" 
>> is a single-selectable tablist.
>>
>> After thinking about it, I don't think (2) above is right.  When a sighted user 
>> hits Tab, they usually have some idea of where they are going to end up.  They 
>> can see the next thing in the tab order.  If the accordion tabpanel is closed, 
>> the expectation would be to navigate to the next focusable visible item in the 
>> tab order.  Moving focus to something that is invisible would be jarring (even 
>> if it's made visible in the process).
>>     

I agree on this point. If the user hits space and expands the panel
first, fine, tab can then move to/within the panel, but not otherwise.

cheers,
David
Received on Friday, 7 November 2008 19:35:02 GMT

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