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http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/editing.html#element-level-focus-apis The current text advises: "Do not use this method to hide the focus ring if you find the focus ring unsightly. Instead, use a CSS rule to override the 'outline' property. (Be aware, however, that this makes the page significantly less usable for some people, especially those with reduced vision who use focus outlines to help them navigate the page.)" The advice could be improved by emphasising that removing the focus outline affects all keyboard-navigation users, and the negative effects can be mitigated by using another CSS technique to display where the focus is, something like: "(Be aware, however, that, removing the focus outline makes the page significantly less usable to people who use a keyboard to navigate the page. If you do remove the focus outline, provide an alternative method of indicating focus with CSS :focus, such as adding an underline on text links or a border on linked images.)"
This bug was cloned to create bug 17841 as part of operation convergence.
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the Editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the Tracker Issue; or you may create a Tracker Issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document: http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html Status: Accepted Change Description: applied patch https://github.com/w3c/html/commit/bc70912c06dbfdf650d9172033c3ccb6ff0123bc Rationale: adopted resolution by WHATWG
Actually - we always had a different text in the W3C spec, which severely discourages the use of .blur() to hide the focus ring: "Do not use this method to hide the focus ring. Do not use any other method that hides the focus ring from keyboard users,in particluar do not use a CSS rule to override the 'outline' property. Removal of the focus ring leads to serious accessibility issues for users who navigate and interact with interactive content using the keyboard." Matthew, I assume that is acceptable for you, too? Please re-open the bug if not.