RE: Seeking guidance...

Dear Charles,

Thanks for forwarding this concern.  I would agree that it is a major bug
(with HTML 4.01) and puts the WCAG in an awkward position since the linked
technique document now recommends code fragments which are not valid HTML.

Wish I had spotted this before 4.01 was released!  Oh well, there is always
4.02!

Please keep me posted with your progress on bringing this oversight to the
attention of the powers that be...

Cheers,
Bruce Bailey

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Charles McCathieNevile [mailto:charles@w3.org]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2000 6:06 PM
> To: Bruce Bailey
> Cc: Accessibility Listserve; Crystal Allen
> Subject: RE: Seeking guidance...
>
>
> Hmmm. I have just checked the HTML 4.01 spec and you are right -
> focus events
> are only valid on elements that are already active elements. This
> seems like
> a major bug, and I will take it through the Protocols and Formats group to
> try and fix this wherever possible.
>
> I wasn't suggesting to replace these attributes, but to add them. Current
> browsers are designed with the HTML 4 set of events, which are
> horribly (in
> my opinion) device-specific, and therefore difficult to work with in an
> accessible way.
>
> 6.4 and 9.3 are difficult to do in some cases for HTML 4.01. This is a
> problem of the language design, rather than of the WCAG. So as
> far as I can
> see the solution lies in getting better designed languages...
>
> Charles McCN
>
>
> On Wed, 5 Apr 2000, Bruce Bailey wrote:
>
>>   I hope I am wrong on this!
>>
>>   I tried REPLACING onMouseOver with onFocus and onMouseOut with
>>   onBlur with a page I was experimenting with.
>>   1)	The effect no longer worked (via keyboard or mouse) on IE
>>   5.01.  As a matter of practicality, do ANY browsers currently
>>   support this tag attribute?
>>   2)	The page no longer validated (to HTML 4.01 Transitional)
>>   since it was perfectly legal to attach an onMouseOut attribute to
>>   a DIV, but onBlur was NOT valid!
>>
>>   I gave up and changed 'em back.  The particular DOM I am currently
>>   using (and, consequently the JavaScript) only works with IE 4+.  I
>>   have not had the time to try to figure out something that might have
better
>>   cross browser support (for the effect I was working on).
>>
>>   IMHO, this WCAG 6.4/9.3 (both P2) recommendation
>>   http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT-TECHS/#device-ind-events
>>   falls into the same
>>
theoretically-may-someday-be-useful-but-currently-is-in-practice-a-bad-idea
>>   category as 3.7 (use <Q>...</Q>).

Received on Thursday, 6 April 2000 09:23:25 UTC