Next steps on drag-and-drop? [was: Ensuring HTML5 drag and drop events can be activated by keyboard-only users]

Hi Gez,

It's been a few weeks now since you sent out a request for info
about keyboard activatability of drag-and-drop events. I note that
you asked:

> The first thing we need is feedback from browser manufacturers to
> determine if these events can be fired using the keyboard alone
> resulting in an accessible workflow.

..and that we got a response from Eric -

  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2010Jun/0137.html
  "You can't do this in WebKit today, but I can't think of any
  reason it  couldn't be made to work."

And along with that, some further details from Maciej -

  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2010Jun/0261.html

We have not gotten responses from other browser vendors yet. But
it would be surprising if their responses were wildly different
from what we've heard back so far from Eric and Maciej.

So I think we need to move forward with this on the assumption
that these events can be made keyboard activatable, and wanted to
ask what you think steps should be.

One thing that is still unclear to me is what changes, if any, we
expect might need to be made to the spec once we reach an outcome
on this. For example, should an explicit statement be added to the
spec to require that UAs make these events keyboard activatable?
If so, why would we need that stated for these particular events
but not for others? Or is there another kind of change that you
anticipate the spec might need to make?

  --Mike

Gez Lemon <g.lemon@webprofession.com>, 2010-06-10 15:21 +0100:

> Hi everyone,
> 
> At last week's teleconference, Rich suggested that I follow-up with an
> email to this group outlining what is required to make drag and drop
> accessible with HTML5. As I mentioned last week, event names are
> defined in a device independent way in the HTML specification, so
> should be able to be made accessible to keyboard only users. The HTML5
> drag and drop mechanism defines seven events:
> 
> * dragstart (initiate the drag and drop operation)
> 
> * drag (continue drag and drop operation)
> 
> * dragenter (determine if accepted)
> 
> * dragleave (leaving a target)
> 
> * dragover (provide feedback to user)
> 
> * drop (complete the operation)
> 
> * dragend (tidy up)
> 
> These events cannot currently be activated using the keyboard alone in
> user agents. The drag and drop processing model is defined in the
> HTML5 specification:
> 
> http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/Overview.html#drag-and-drop-processing-model
> 
> The first thing we need is feedback from browser manufacturers to
> determine if these events can be fired using the keyboard alone
> resulting in an accessible workflow.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Gez
> 
> 
> 

-- 
Michael(tm) Smith
http://people.w3.org/mike

Received on Wednesday, 14 July 2010 13:41:33 UTC