RE: Target size alternative

From: Repsher, Stephen J [mailto:stephen.j.repsher@boeing.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2017 9:29 AM
To: WCAG <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>

Each target includes any associated heading or label which does not serve more than one target, and the full extent of any container(s) for which it is the only element.

And then maybe redefine target in the glossary simply to (utilizing the existing definition for user interface component):

target: the physical area of a user interface component that accepts a click or touch for activation

I think this would certainly make a lot of unnecessarily small targets across the web much bigger, yet it inherently excludes any links within blocks of text and other points of contention. The exception for "more than one target" is meant to handle situations such as tables where multiple controls may reference a single label using  aria-labeledby  or similar technique.
[Jason] This is interesting. Do you have a good estimate of what proportion of the troublesome cases (those which would be problematic for users) this covers? Perhaps I'm naïve, but it seems to me that the very small in-line targets that people are trying to exclude would be the worst cases for the users with dexterity issues. I think this entire problem calls for a "user agent" solution.
Returning to the original proposal, the difficulty with small targets seems to be that increasing the size without overlapping requires corresponding increases in the size of (or spacing between) the controls, introducing the problem of horizontal scrolling as John noted. There have been allegations about other formatting problems that would make the resultant material hard to read. So perhaps a narrow exception to cover just those cases would be in order, rather than a broad exception for "in-line" controls and links.


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