RE: Focus not obscured notes

Alistair, I am supportive of the intent to improve the clarity of the understanding document.  I am however, confused on some of the user disclosed statements.  For example, if a chat widget is expanded by the user and then that non-modal chat interface blocks keyboard focusable content but also blocks pointer access to the same content then it doesn't seem like a keyboard specific issue - it seems like an issue for everyone.  Being able to close the non-modal chat is a need for all users and as long as it can be minimized then I would expect most users to do that before trying to interact with content behind it. The third option for a keystroke to move between overlays is also confusing it's not clear what this means or how it might mitigate the situation.

I do realize is more likely that these issues will occur for people using browser zoom and reflow - non-modal content is likely to take up more room making it more difficult to interact with content without having to minimize the content.  This does make some aspects of the above more problematic for low vision users. Being able to toggle the chat on and off could be easier for mouse users than keyboard users without some keystroke.

What I believe the updates may be getting at is closer to what would happen with toolbars (which is one of the examples given)  In that case you need to use the toolbar at the same time with the content in the canvas and you need to be able to toggle it from displayed to minimized.  I totally get this aspect.  So perhaps two important aspects are:

  *   Whether you need to the disclosed content to interact with the other content simultaneously or
  *   When you can access interactive content obscured by the disclosure with a pointer but not with the keyboard - for example such as when you can keep the disclosure open and move with the pointer - that provides an advantage to the pointer user but not the keyboard user.
Jonathan

From: Alastair Campbell <acampbell@nomensa.com>
Sent: Thursday, April 20, 2023 5:51 PM
To: WCAG list (w3c-wai-gl@w3.org) <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Subject: Focus not obscured notes

Hi everyone,

We spoke briefly about the Focus Not Obscured updates yesterday, and this email is to check for objections prior to CR.

No normative changes are proposed, but two updates to the notes under the SC text are proposed (in PR 3083<https://github.com/w3c/wcag/pull/3083/files>), which are:
Note 1: Where content in a configurable interface can be repositioned by the user, then only the initial positions of user-movable content is considered for testing and conformance of this Success Criterion.

Note 2: Where content disclosed by the user can obscure other content, if the user can reveal the item with focus without moving keyboard focus (for example, by dismissing with Esc), such disclosed content is not considered to fully obscure the item receiving focus.

The understanding document (preview<https://raw.githack.com/w3c/wcag/2751-FocusObscured-movable/understanding/22/focus-not-obscured-minimum.html>) expands on those in two sections in the intent as well.

Overall, the reasons to include these it to make it clear that:

  *   If a user moves palettes around which then obscure focus, that does not fail.
  *   If a user opens something (e.g. a chat window), but the position is not configurable, then there needs to be a method for the user to close it without moving focus.

There is a whole section of examples in the understanding document.

The question is: Does anyone object to that direction / approach?

These are informative, and the understanding doc is easy to update later.

Kind regards,

-Alastair

PS. I've suggested replacing "discloses" with "reveals" in the second note.
Other suggestions welcome, either in the github thread: https://github.com/w3c/wcag/pull/3083/files or in reply to this email.