Re: Events (Xposted)

I like your point about mouseover events.   Rather than saying a specific
event is inaccessible or accessible, I think we need to focus on accessible
design guidelines.
Jon


At 10:58 AM 10/29/98 -0600, Paul Adelson wrote:
>Sorry for the cross-post, but there is an important issue being overlooked
>here that pertains to both UA and PAGL:
>
>onMouseOver can enhance accessibility and there is no effective
alternative at
>this time, yet people are suggesting it not be used.
>
>For low-vision users, it is very helpful to get extra visual feedback -- as
>can be provided by highlighting a link when the mouse cursor passes over it.
>Using the events in this way can improve accessibility for people with low
>vision and does not limit accessibility for people who don't use a mouse.
>
>The problem arises when onMouseOver is used for more complicated processes --
>for instance, using mouseover on images to pop up descriptive text somewhere
>else on the screen, resulting in descriptive text that disappears whenever
the
>user tries to move their focus to it.
>
>Someone suggested that if the PAGL says not to use onMouseOver we could
figure
>that intelligent web developers will ignore the guideline in valid
>curcomstances. Perhaps it would be better to assume that many readers of the
>guidelines will be naive on these issues, and that the guidelines should
>specify how the events can be used in a positive way and when they can be
>detrimental?
>
>For the UA group, maybe this is an opportunity to think about how to make
>'onMouseOver' more generic. Thinking back to our recent discussions of 'Point
>of Regard', would a set of 'onRegard' or 'onUserCursor' events be a plausible
>superset of 'onMouse' that could be applied to a broader range of interactive
>devices?
>
>
>Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>
>> The discussion on PAGL was about logical events (those which specified a
>> function) as opposed to device-dependent events.
>>
>> The division below was the list as it stands. It occurred to me that we
>> could easily enough add onActivate - corresponding in a mouse interface to
>> onClick, and to pressing return to activate the item with focus in a
>> keyboard interface.
>>
>> I'm not sure about the rest, but I suspect that onMouseDown, onMouseUp,
>> onKeyDown, onKeyUp and onMouseMove are related to selecting a part of the
>> document. In determining how to do that we are likely to sort out the
>> relationship between the current device-dependent attributes and new
>> 'logical' event triggers that can be triggered from various interfaces (eg
>> voice)
>>
>> Which seems to me to leave onMouseOut and onDblClick out in the cold. One
>> of the consequences of this is that we should recommend against using
>> those events which we are likely to lose (except for providing 'eye-candy'
>> - stuff that has no functional importance) and make suggestions about how
>> the rest might be used in the page authoring guidelines. (have i said
>> this before on this group? if so, sorry)
>>
>> Charles McCathieNevile
>>
>> From: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/1998OctDec/0029.html
>>
>> Chris is right, so for the sake of completeness I looked up all the event
>> attributes again.  Those which I think are device-dependent, and we should
>> recommend not be used are:
>>
>> onMousedown, onMouseup, onMouseover, onMousemove, onMouseout, onKeydown,
>> onKeyup, onKeypress, onClick, onDblclick
>>
>> Those which seem to be logical events are:
>>
>> onFocus, onBlur, onSelect, onChange, onSubmit, onReset, onLoad, onUnload.
>>
>> It should also be possible to define something like 'onActivate' - which
>> would be equivalent to onClick for a link, but I guess this belongs to
>> other groups.
>>
>> Charles McCathieNevile
>
>--
>  -- Paul Adelson
>------
>* The views expressed are those of the
>* author and do not necessarily reflect the
>* position of Citibank or its affiliates.
> 
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street
Champaign, IL 61820

Voice: 217-244-5870
Fax: 217-333-0248
E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
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Received on Friday, 30 October 1998 11:28:07 UTC