Re: [css-flexbox] PF comment on Flexbox: Advise authors about reordering

On 05/21/2014 09:48 AM, Michael Cooper wrote:
> Below is a review from the Protocols and Formats Working Group on CSS 3 Flexbox
> <http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/WD-css-flexbox-1-20140325/>.
>
> <blockquote>
> 5.4.1 Reordering and Accessibility
>
> The order property does not affect ordering in non-visual media (such as speech). Likewise, order does not affect the default
> traversal order of sequential navigation modes (such as cycling through links, see e.g. nav-index [CSS3UI] or tabindex
> [HTML40]). Authors must use order only for visual, not logical, reordering of content; style sheets that use order to perform
> logical reordering are non-conforming.
>
> This is so that non-visual media and non-CSS UAs, which typically present content linearly, can rely on a logical source
> order, while order is used to tailor the visual order. (Since visual perception is two-dimensional and non-linear, the desired
> visual order is not always logical.)
> </blockquote>
>
> The reordering and accessibility section mentions tabindex and nav-index. However, it's not quite strong enough on the
> importance of focus order for visual keyboard users.
>
> We suggest to add "authors who change the order using order, flex-direction=row-reverse, flex-direction=column-reverse, or
> flex-flow (and ??) must|should adjust the focus order with either nav-index or tabindex."

The reason why tabindex and nav-index are not affected by Flexbox
reordering is *because* we want the focus order to follow the
source order.

If the logical order (that speech and focus should follow) needs
to be reordered, that should be done at the source level, and
not with flex-flow. I think the spec is reasonably clear about
this in the section you just quoted.

Therefore I am rejecting your suggestion. It is actively harmful.
Authors who want such reordering should reorder the source order
instead of using flex-flow.

~fantasai

Received on Monday, 18 August 2014 21:33:13 UTC