[css3-ui] discourage invisible outlines on focused elements (issue 43)

Raised as issue 43: https://wiki.csswg.org/spec/css3-ui#issue43

Making the outline invisible (for example with outline-with:0, outline-color:transparent, or outline-style:none, etc) on the focused element is a usability / accessibility problem for users relying on keyboard navigation, so it was suggested we do something about it.

Using UA conformance requirements does not seem the right way out of this one.

Users can add something with !important to their user style sheet, but warning authors away from this still sounds useful. In particular, there are a bunch of css resets out there which do “* {outline: none;}”, and having validators warn about this could be desirable.

Example wording:

"As the outline on elements in the ‘:focus’ state is depended on by keyboard users for interaction with the page, authors should not make the outline invisible on such elements without making sure an alternative highlighting mechanism is provided.”

 - Florian

Received on Tuesday, 25 November 2014 12:24:27 UTC