Re: Is there an html or WCAG definition of "modality" as it relates to keyboard behavior in a modeal dialog?

Birkir,

I have been involved in similar discussions and agree that focus should 
not leave a modal dialog. 

There are some who argue that inside the browser context, that this 
behavior should be platform dependent. I strongly disagree with such a 
position as I think it clings to an out-of-date notion that the browser is 
THE application and stuff inside is browser rendered content rather than 
the idea that a browser can render applications in the same way that a 
desktop OS renders desktop applications.

Now that we have a modal property in ARIA 1.1, perhaps we could advocate 
for a normative "author SHOULD" requirement along these lines related to 
that property.

Matt King
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member
I/T Chief Accessibility Strategist
IBM BT/CIO - Global Workforce and Web Process Enablement 
Phone: (503) 578-2329, Tie line: 731-7398
mattking@us.ibm.com



From:   Birkir Gunnarsson <birkir.gunnarsson@deque.com>
To:     "WAI Protocols & Formats" <public-pfwg@w3.org>, 
Date:   04/15/2015 12:33 PM
Subject:        Is there an html or WCAG definition of "modality" as it 
relates to  keyboard behavior in a modeal dialog?



Greetings

At a meeting with a big client today we had exhaustive discussions on
whether it is a failure if user focus is allowed to go out of a modal
dialog, into the address bar of the browser, then back into the modal.
The big issue discussed is that no one was able to find a W3C
definition of modality. The ARIA Authoring Guide describes expected
behavior when navigating a modal dialog using the keyboard, but that
specification, though excellent, is not normative.
It is not clear to me that allowing user to get to the address bar is
a definitely violation of 2.4.3 (I would like to find something that
enabled me to definitely call it as such).
Apologies if this is off-topic, but is there anywhere in WCAG specs or
the html spec where modal is clearly defined with regard to keyboard
navigation, something that can be referenced when calling keyboard
navigation that enables user to leave a modal, if only for a single
tabstop, a WCAG failure?
Thanks
-Birkir