[whatwg] make <video> always focusable and interactive content

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Jun 19, 2012, at 8:43 PM, Silvia Pfeiffer <silviapfeiffer1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> I recently experimented with keyboard accessibility of media elements.
> 
> I found that browsers don't provide a default tabfocus on media
> elements nor do they provide keyboard interactivity. I had to put
> explicit @tabindex attributes onto the media elements to allow them to
> at least receive focus. This is particularly irritating in a
> screenreader.
> 
> As the video is specified right now, it is not a tabfocusable element
> [1] and only interactive [2] when it has controls. This is sufficient
> for audio elements, which have no visual representation without
> controls, but isn't right for video, which always renders at least a
> poster (or a black area). Also, if there are controls specified, they
> should actually be tabfocusable.

In Safari on Mac OS X, we choose what is tab focusable based on OS conventions, where not all controls are in the tab focus cycle by default. For Mac UI, video should not be tab-focusable unless the user has enabled the special tab-to-everything mode. I think the spec should continue to allow this behavior. I think it's fine to also allow the other behavior, where video is focusable by default. I think the spec actually already allows both behaviors when it says: "An element is focusable if the user agent's default behavior allows it to be focusable". As with any other control, the default focusability should be up to the UA.

Regards,
Maciej