RE: 2.4.7 Focus Visible

The regulations you cite are not anti-discrimination legislation  - that would be the Equity Act in the UK.

 

Now, quit with the oh-so clever-clever rhetorical game play – everyone has already given you enough time on this list. 

 

 

 

 

From: Michael Livesey <mike.j.livesey@gmail.com> 
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2023 3:17 PM
To: Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk>
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: 2.4.7 Focus Visible

 

Adam Cooper just told me that Britain makes no reference to WCAG, yes it does Adam.

Public Sector Bodies (Website and Mobile Applications) Accesibility Regulations, 2018
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps

WCAG AA is considered the gold standard for equalities legislation in most of the developed world for "Making a website or mobile app accessible means making sure it can be used by as many people as possible." and yet there is a significant problem with the visual requirements in that visually impaired may only benefit if they use a keyboard. 

Why it appears to have been so controversial to ask for an advisory, along the same lines as the "Accessibility Concerns" clearly stated on MDN regarding suppression of visible focus mouse response to controls, continues to baffle.

 

So we have what is regularly called the "gold standard" AA criteria, the definition of prestigious, but MDN notes "Accessibility Concerns" for the what would be a passing grade in that standard for 2.4.7 and 2.4.3.

 

The disconnect here is that keyboard use is associated with motor disabilities, yet 2.4.7 and 2.4.3 is a criteria claimed also for visual and cognitive disabilities. 

"Focus Visible: Any keyboard operable user interface has a mode of operation where the keyboard focus indicator is visible. (Level AA)"

 

But it continues - "Focus visible is very important for low vision users, ... & attention disorders" [who are unlikely to be using the keyboard] - a point that is still not disputed in this discussion.

I suspect that the above disconnect hasn't been appreciated by disability groups yet given the complexity of the WCAG guidelines. I only recently appreciated it on reviewing code where a developer deliberately suppressed all focus rings (even focus-visible) except for keyboard navigation and claimed it met WCAG AA. I suspect we will see more of that.

 

On Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 10:53 PM Michael Livesey <mike.j.livesey@gmail.com <mailto:mike.j.livesey@gmail.com> > wrote:

Yep, that's what I said just a moment ago, :has() is currently the only way to support it, but not yet fully supported.

 

On Thu, Jul 13, 2023 at 10:31 PM Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk <mailto:redux@splintered.co.uk> > wrote:

On 13/07/2023 20:53, Michael Livesey wrote:
> Perhaps I didn't phrase correctly.
> 
> Applying an outline around the actual checkbox is awful UX, who does that?
> 
> In order to apply good UX we need to use the onfocus event. This event 
> cannot return user agent heuristics for focus-visibility setting.

<label><input type="checkbox"> ...</label>

label:has(input:focus-visible) { /* style me */ }

(support for :has() is still behind a feature flag in Firefox at the moment)

https://codepen.io/patrickhlauke/pen/qBQxXvy

P
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Patrick H. Lauke

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