Re: [csswg-drafts] [css-ui] `interactivity: focusable` (#13040)

@Loirooriol 

> I'm not sure what kind of focusability you want for `interactivity: focusable`.

I intentionally did not go in the weeds, as (from memory, which can be faulty) most use cases I’ve come across have just needed _some_ way, _any way_ to make elements focusable via CSS, rather than depending on a particular answer to these questions.

That said, it may be helpful to frame it in terms of requirements / considerations. E.g. for sequential-only vs click-focusable-too:
- Presumably down the line we'd want to expose more granular controls, but for the initial MVP it’s a safer bet to err on the side of more accessibility. That points towards **both**.
- A good mental model for authors is that it works like `tabindex=0`, which would also point towards **both**.
- Providing independent value rather than being a CSS-based way to accomplish things that are already possible is also appealing. That would point towards **sequentially focusable** only.
- If `focusable` is framed as the opposite of `inert`, that also points towards **both**.
- Click-focusable as well enables more UX patterns, and noise from superfluous visible affordances can largely be avoided through `:focus-visible`, which also points towards **both**.

So it seems like there is stronger motivation to start with both and provide more granular control after, but if sequential-only is easier to implement for UAs (since that's what the precedent is about), I think that would still be immensely useful.

We could write a similar list for navigation order, but the same order as `tabindex=0` seems like a good starting point for the MVP and something that is already well-defined.

> And would `interactivity: focusable` work on pseudo-elements?

Absolutely, that’s a core use case!

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Received on Sunday, 2 November 2025 22:08:37 UTC