CSS :hover pseudo-class and focus management

Dear CSS WG,

The CDF WG has recently been discussing focus management in compound
documents. In a teleconference meeting [1], we have decided to  modify
section "6 Focus support" of WICD Core specification [2] as follows. The
sentence

"Which elements qualify as focusable elements must be defined by this
specification or by the profiles that are built upon this specification."

will be replaced with the text

"The language specifications that are used with this framework should
define what elements are focusable."

In addition, we will include the following informative note
right after the previous sentence

"The current XHTML specifications do not clearly define what elements
are focusable. It is common industry practice that all elements, which
have tabindex attribute are focusable, e.g., a, input, select, textarea,
object, button, area."

We still have an open question concerning CSS :hover pseudo-class. We
are especially concerned about use cases, where the user is not using
pointing device, such as mouse, but is rather using navigation keys,
such as tab, left, right, up, or down.

The question is should elements, which actully match a CSS hover:
pseudo-class selector also be focusable?

One use case example is a link menu implemented in CSS. The link list
has, for example, two levels. By default, only the title of the link
list is displayed. When user positions the pointer on the title the
first level is displayed. Further, when user moves the pointer on some
item of the first level, the corresponding second level is displayed.

An example is available at the X-Smiles demo page [3]. The navigate link
list is on the top right side of the document.

We would be happy to hear your comments.

Thanks,

Petri Vuorimaa on behalf of the CDF WG

[1] http://www.w3.org/2006/04/19-cdf-minutes.html
[2] http://www.w3.org/2004/CDF/specs/CDR/wp-1/wicd.xhtml#focus-support
[3] http://www.x-smiles.org/demo/demos.xhtml

Received on Wednesday, 3 May 2006 19:28:50 UTC