Proposal for Changes to Keyboard Navigation

Hi, folks-

I realize that this comes too late, since Last Call for CSS3 was quite some
time ago, but there are a couple of considerations for keyboard navigation
that would enhance their use in SVG(+XBL) applications. I have made a page
which addresses these issues, discusses them in detail, and provides use
cases and demos. [0]

The first is relatively minor: for directional navigation [1], in addition
to URIs, nav-index values of elements in the current document should be
valid values for nav-up, nav-down, nav-left, and nav-right. My rationale is
that this is more consistent with the nav-index system, is less verbose,
does not require that the focus target have an "id" attribute, and would be
easier to assign and track programmatically. I recognize that this is not
necessarily the initial intent on directional navigation --that directional
navigation was partly intended for inter-document navigation-- but this use
case is particularly pertinent in SVG, at least (and probably in other host
languages like HTML, sometimes). This aspect of it, admittedly, is a bit
muddled... when does a directional nav key move to another document, and
when does it stay in the same document?

The second is that currently, there is currently no provision for
hierarchical navigation [2] within a document. I propose that nav-index
allows, as an optional value, a parameterized list of integers rather than a
single integer. Each parameter would act as a local index for that
heirarchical "level," and would require a special key sequence for
navigation up or down levels. This is just one possible solution, of course,
but it outlines the problem domain. In addition, a special cue (visual,
and/or aural, and/or whatever) should be given when hierarchical options
exists. This is certainly more radical than the first suggestion, but an
elegant model that considers both of these aspects might be designed.

I have also brought up these issues on the www-svg list, but decided to
repeat them here for possible future inclusion into the CSS Spec.

Regards-
-Doug

[0] http://www.schepers.cc/walkingtalkingsvg.html#DirectionalNavigation
[1] http://www.schepers.cc/walkingtalkingsvg.html#DirectionalNavigation
[2] http://www.schepers.cc/walkingtalkingsvg.html#HierarchicalNavigation

Received on Wednesday, 14 April 2004 14:53:18 UTC