Action 178

Greetings. *

*During the face-to-face Greg and I took a look at all the definitions 
that had to do with focus and compared them to other standards. We've 
finally finished. We still have to go through the document to look at 
how the terms are used in the document to make sure everything to do 
with focus is consistent. Before that, however we figured it was time to 
bring the definitions to the group.

The rewritten definitions follow.
*
*Cheers,
Kim*

Active input focus
*The *input focus* location in the *active viewport*. The active input 
focus is usually visibly indicated. In this document "active input 
focus" generally refers to the active keyboard input focus.

*Active selection*
The selection that will currently be affected by a user command, as 
opposed to selections in other viewports, called inactive selections, 
which would not currently be affected by a user command.

*Cursor
*Visual indicator showing where keyboard input will occur. There are two 
types of cursors: *focus cursor* (e.g. the dotted line around a button) 
and *text cursor* (e.g. the flashing vertical bar in a text field). 
Cursors are active when in the active viewport, and inactive when in an 
inactive viewport.

*Focus cursor
*Indicator that *highlights* a user interface element to show that it 
has *keyboard focus*, e.g. a dotted line around a button, or brightened 
title bar on a window.

*Focusable element*
Any element capable of having input focus, e.g. link, text box, or menu 
item. In order to be accessible and fully usable, every focusable 
element should take keyboard focus, and ideally would also take pointer 
focus.

*Highlight, Highlighted, Highlighting*
Emphasis indicated through the user interface. For example, user agents 
highlight content that is selected,focused, or matched by a search 
operation. Graphical highlight mechanisms include dotted boxes, changed 
colors or fonts, underlining, magnification, and reverse video. 
Synthesized speech highlight mechanisms include alterations of voice 
pitch and volume ("speech prosody"). User interface items may also be 
highlighted, for example a specific set of foreground and background 
colors for the title bar of the active window. Note that content that is 
highlighted may or may not be a *selection*.

*Inactive input focus
*The input focus location in an inactive viewport such as a background 
window or pane. The inactive input focus location will become the active 
input focus location when input focus returns to that viewport. An 
inactive input focus may or may not be visibly indicated.

*Inactive selection*
A selection that does not have the* input focus* and thus does not take 
input events.

*Input focus*
The place where input will occur if a viewport is active. Examples 
include keyboard focus and pointing device focus. Input focus can also 
be active (in the active viewport) or inactive (in an inactive viewport).

*Keyboard focus*
The screen location where keyboard input will occur if a viewport is 
active. Keyboard focus can be active (in the active viewport) or 
inactive (in an inactive viewport).
**
*Point of regard
*The point of regard is a position in rendered content that the user is 
presumed to be viewing. The dimensions of the point of regard may vary. 
For example, it may be a point (e.g., a moment during an audio rendering 
or a cursor position in a graphical rendering), or a range of text 
(e.g., focused text), or a two-dimensional area (e.g., content rendered 
through a two-dimensional graphical viewport). The point of regard is 
almost always within the viewport, but it may exceed the spatial or 
temporal dimensions of the viewport (see the definition of rendered 
content for more information about viewport dimensions). The point of 
regard may also refer to a particular moment in time for content that 
changes over time (e.g., an audio-only presentation). User agents may 
determine the point of regard in a number of ways, including based on 
viewport position in content, content focus, and selection. The 
stability of the point of regard is addressed by @@. [Taken directly 
from UAAG10] [Note: the term "point of regard" is ONLY used in 3.10.6 
Viewport History]

*Pointer:* Visual indicator showing where pointing device input will 
occur. The indicator can be moved with a pointing device or emulator 
such as a mouse, pen tablet, keyboard-based mouse emulator, speech-based 
mouse commands, or 3-D wand.  A pointing device click typically moves 
the *input focus* to the pointer location. The indicator may change to 
reflect different states.
.
*Pointing device focus:* The screen location where pointer input will 
occur if a viewport is active. There can be multiple pointing device 
foci, for example when using a screen sharing utility there is typically 
one for the user's physical mouse and one for the remote mouse.
NOTE: this term is not used in the document other than the glossary.

*Selection*
A user agent mechanism for identifying a (possibly empty) range of 
content that will be the implicit source or target for subsequent 
operations. The selection may be used for a variety of purposes, 
including for cut and paste operations, to designate a specific element 
in a document for the purposes of a query, and as an indication of point 
of regard, e.g. the matched results of a search may be automatically 
selected.  The selection should be *highlighted* in a distinctive 
manner. On the screen, the selection may be highlighted in a variety of 
ways, including through colors, fonts, graphics, and magnification. When 
rendered using synthesized speech, the selection may be highlighted 
through changes in pitch, speed, or prosody.
Notes:

    * Each viewport is expected to have at most one selection. However,
      selection can be *contiguous* or *discontiguous*.
    * The dimensions of the rendered selection may exceed those of the
      viewport.
    * A selection can be *active* (in the active viewport) or *inactive*
      (in an inactive viewport). Some user agents have distinctive
      highlighting for inactive selection, while others remove
      highlighting when a selection becomes inactive.
    * Selection state should be preserved when a viewport loses and then
      regains the *activation*.
    * Selection can be set and read programmatically. This is
      particularly important for assistive technology. (ISSUE: This
      should be under PRINCIPLE 2. "Facilitate programmatic access", but
      I don't see it there -Greg.)
    * Some user agents may also implement a selection for designating a
      range of information in the user agent user interface, such as
      selecting one or more page tabs to delete or reorder. The current
      document only includes requirements for a content selection mechanism.

*
Split focus
*A state when the user could be confused because the input focus is 
separated from something it is usually linked to, such as being at a 
different place than the selection or similar highlighting, or has been 
scrolled outside of the visible portion of the viewport. [Note: this 
term is not used in the document other than the glossary. This may or 
may not stay in the final document, but is a useful concept.]

*Text cursor: *Indicator showing where keyboard input will occur in 
text, e.g. the flashing vertical bar in a text field.
-- 
___________________________________________________

Kimberly Patch
President
Redstart Systems, Inc.
(617) 325-3966
kim@redstartsystems.com

www.redstartsystems.com <http://www.redstartsystems.com>
- making speech fly

Blog: Patch on Speech
Twitter: RedstartSystems
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