Re: Styling form control elements

On Dec 6, 2013, at 4:59 AM, Scott González <scott.gonzalez@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> On Fri, Dec 6, 2013 at 5:26 AM, Brian Di Palma <offler@gmail.com> wrote:
>> If UA controls are not styleable in the manner I wish them to be and I
>> have access to custom elements + shadow DOM,
>> I think I would just create my own controls and use them instead of UA ones.
> 
> And you'll make the experience worse for many users because many users have devices that you actually don't want to replace. Also, all the other problems about validation, semantics, etc.


I've seen this theme pop up for years. There are standards of completeness-- as long as the browser supports a sufficient API, implementers can support "complete" widgets.

The issue is in enumerating and exposing those items which are necessary to construct a widget.

We talk about select, well aria has DOM semantics, pseudo-selectors may work for display containers, focus is and has always been mentioned, as well as pointer and keyboard input events within WCAG. We have input method editors for typeahead style select boxes.

Now we can shoot all that down and say that the UA should be the only point of control for custom form elements, but that just doesn't create productive discourse.

Enumerating and exposing a means to provide a full (Level AAA) custom control is a productive effort. That said, yes, I acknowledge that many controls, UA provided or author created have been and will be substandard.

-Charles