tabindex="-1" doesn't just remove items from the tab order. It also
makes items focusable via mouse click or script, which is important when
designing custom container widgets like spreadsheets, etc. via
Javascript. In fact any negative value does it.
Don't try to overload the tabindex attribute. First, the browsers
currently optimize it knowing that it's an integer. Second, the scoping
is orthogonal. Third, magic values are less readable. It's voodoo.
- Aaron
Simon Pieters wrote:
Hi,
Currently if you want to use the tabindex to change the tab order you
mostly have to specify tabindex on all links and form controls prior
to the area you want to modify the tab order, because otherwise that
area would be before all prior elements in the tab order, which in
most cases isn't wanted. Therefore there's a need to scope tabindex
somehow.
So here's an idea. A new value for the tabindex attribute, "scoped".
Here's an example:
<p>The following links should be focused in the order which the link
text indicates:
<p><a href="#">first</a>
<table tabindex="scoped">
<tr>
<td><a href="#" tabindex="1">second</a>
<td><a href="#" tabindex="3">forth</a>
<tr>
<td><a href="#" tabindex="2">third</a>
<td><a href="#" tabindex="4">fifth</a>
</table>
<p><a href="#">last</a>
The table itself is not in the tab order and is not focusable.
I'm not sure if we need another attribute or something for this
instead as .tabIndex is a long and not a DOMString. Or perhaps we
could say that all elements that have a tabindex attribute is a
scoping element, so that authors can use tabindex="-1" on the table
instead.
Here's a pointer of where this (or something similar) is called for:
http://accessifyforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6034
Regards,
Simon Pieters
