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Bug 23984 - Is it possible to implement drawCustomFocusRing?
Summary: Is it possible to implement drawCustomFocusRing?
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: CR HTML Canvas 2D Context (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: PC Windows NT
: P2 critical
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: This bug has no owner yet - up for the taking
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: a11y_canvas
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-12-03 16:56 UTC by Philippe Le Hegaret
Modified: 2015-06-16 20:46 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Philippe Le Hegaret 2013-12-03 16:56:45 UTC
Can the user agent actually know that the user requested particular focus rings (e.g. high-contrast focus ring, "make the focus rectangle thicker" on Windows)?
If not, then drawCustomFocusRing will always have no effect in user agents... 

[[
What I don't understand is how a browser is supposed to implement the high
contrast focus ring support on a real operating system that exists today.
Are there other apps that do this? Are there published guidelines anywhere?

Windows has a system setting for high-contrast mode. When you turn on high
contrast mode, it changes the default color palette. There's no other
effect on the focus ring that I know of.

Windows also has settings for the focus ring width. I agree those should
affect the system focus ring, but I don't think users would expect that to
override a canvas author's focus ring.

High contrast mode may affect the system focus ring color, it's true - but
there's no reason to believe that this system focus ring would look better
on a canvas when high contrast mode is on, and in fact it might look much
worse.

Third-party accessibility tools that draw focus rings aren't relevant here.
They draw independently of applications; applications like browsers are not
supposed to draw anything different.
]]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-whatwg-archive/2013Oct/0035.html
Comment 1 Jay Munro 2013-12-03 21:30:46 UTC
Reassigning to Canvas 2D Context Level 2 since drawSystemFocusRing and drawCustomFocusRing are at risk for CR.
Comment 2 Rich Schwerdtfeger 2013-12-04 15:02:33 UTC
I think everyone agrees this should be moved to L2.
Comment 3 Philippe Le Hegaret 2013-12-04 18:00:37 UTC
I actually don't believe that there is agreement to delay drawCustomFocusRing to L2. I'm not suggesting at all that it shouldn't be, but not everyone is on the same line yet.
Comment 4 Jay Munro 2013-12-04 19:48:17 UTC
I jumped the gun on moving to L2, there are still ongoing discussions on the focus ring methods. Moving back to CR until discussions are complete.
Comment 5 Michael[tm] Smith 2013-12-06 07:15:20 UTC
(In reply to Rich Schwerdtfeger from comment #2)
> I think everyone agrees this [drawCustomFocusRing] should be moved to L2.

I concur with Rich here.

(In reply to Philippe Le Hegaret from comment #3)
> I actually don't believe that there is agreement to delay
> drawCustomFocusRing to L2.

I don't believe there's agreement not to delay it :-)

> I'm not suggesting at all that it shouldn't be,
> but not everyone is on the same line yet.

Specifically who can you think of who'd object at this point to deferring drawCustomFocusRing, and why?
Comment 6 Rich Schwerdtfeger 2013-12-06 15:43:05 UTC
Phillipe, the browser manufacturers conveyed to me that drawCustomFocusRing should be delayed as it needed more specification. Perhaps we have bought more time to address it. drawSystemFocusRing is essential but with media queries providing the fact that there system is in high contrast mode this could wait. Let's see what the group comes up with after the modifications.
Comment 7 Philippe Le Hegaret 2013-12-09 18:04:54 UTC
It seems that history gets lost pretty quickly.

On November 6, Rich made the following statement:
[[
We will be testing drawCustomFocusRing as well but it has been implemented in
FF 28. Both are fully working in Chrome Canary for Windows and Mac OSX.
Implementation will not be a problem.
]]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Nov/0010.html

On December 3, Charles sent the following statement related to *keeping drawCustomFocusRing* in the spec:
[[
This proposition has not received consensus. While there was only one  
clear objection objection [1], it appears likely there is further dissent.  
However, it does have significant support. It is also the pre-existing  
position of the Task Force.
]]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Dec/0006.html

Note the "significant support" mentioned above. I didn't assert that there is support to keep it in the spec, I simply want to acknowledge in this issue that there is no consensus to remove it, due to not having everyone on the same line.

I actually argue that drawCustomFocusRing isn't implemented in this email:
[[
While both Google Canary and Firefox Nightly have the function
drawCustomFocusRing, I did not manage to make it do anything even after
activating "High-Contrast" and/or "Thicker Rectangle" on Windows 8. See
also
 https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=23984
]]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Dec/0011.html

and no one disputed that email so far, or told me that I didn't use the proper method to test drawCustomFocusRing.

The whole point of this issue is to highlight the fact that implementation of drawCustomFocusRing will be problematic, and to bring this question to a useful conclusion, rather than assumptions on each side without ever reaching a clear conclusion.

There is now a CfC on the table to remove drawCustomFocusRing:
[[ 
The Task Force supports removing drawCustomFocusRing from the Canvas 2d  
Context level 1.
]]
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-a11y/2013Dec/0022.html

This should hopefully resolve this issue and allows us to move on. After that, we ought to be able to assert that there is agreement to remove it.
Comment 8 Jay Munro 2014-01-07 17:27:21 UTC
Per A11y/Canvas taskforce, moving to Canvas Context 2D level 2 for more work.
Comment 9 Philippe Le Hegaret 2015-06-16 20:25:18 UTC
Reassigned to CR version.
Comment 10 Philippe Le Hegaret 2015-06-16 20:46:15 UTC
drawCustomFocusRing is no longer. Closing.