Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-display-4] Proposed alternative syntax for reading order (#9923)

> ...the possibility that people slap it onto an element and just *assume* it works (but actually create an inaccessible document with nothing fixed) is very high if we're not careful with the design.
> ...
> 2. As shown by the existing values...

I don't think any of the values would make it inaccessible. Certain values can make accessibility of the document less  predictable and less intuitive. This happens already when the DOM order doesn't match what people see with their eyes. Many people using screen readers are at least partially sited, and many more use keyboard tabbing. Besides DOM order, the least predictable and least intuitive reading/tabbing order (from the user's perspective) would be to have any section  of the document read in an order that is the reverse of their language's norm. From the author's perspective, the least desirable thing would be to specify a reading order that matched visual order, and have it fall back to DOM order, which is a much more likely to be not what the author intended. 

So when you say "As shown by the existing values", those values are the heart of the problem with the assumption that it might work worse for some things that the author slaps it on. In every case I can think of, it's already worse if CSS reading order is the reverse of the normal language reading order. With the three values I proposed, it is much more likely that even without testing a11y, it is a very high likelihood that the author's choice will be better than falling back to DOM order (since it matches display order and language rules), and a very low probability that it will be worse.

I mean, suppose an `aside` comes second in DOM order, but first in visual order. Is having it read in visual order, when the author specifies a visual order, really going to make the document inaccessible? If you switch from grid to Flexbox, or vice versa, keeping it in visual order if that was the author's intent, is always going to be better. Is there some example you can give that might change my mind?

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Received on Thursday, 8 February 2024 21:35:45 UTC