Focusability of disabled controls

[JAWS-test]

Focusability of disabled controls:

For the following composite widget elements, keep them focusable when disabled: Options in a Listbox, Menu items in a Menu or menu bar, Tab elements in a set of Tabs, Tree items in a Tree View

I wonder if this should also apply to:

• gridcell in grid or treegrid,
• option of a combobox (which are also in a listbox, but would have to be linked separately),
• radiobuttons within a radiogroup?

[a11ydoer]

APG group discussion on this topic can be found at the APG meeting minutes on March 1.

"To summarize, there are multiple options for authors. The group is considering improving APG by spelling out options and identifying the tradeoffs among them.

Options:

1. Current default in HTML: disabled controls are hard to perceive due to low contrast and they are not focusable.

2. Enable focusability of disabled controls while still leaving them hard to perceive with low contrast. The low contrast makes their disabled state perceivable, but some interpretations of WCAG may call this out as a problem because some people may say that a focusable control is active even if it is not operable.

3. Use low contrast to indicate a disabled state when controls are not focused but make them easy to perceive when focused and use an alternative focus indicator that clearly communicates that the control is not operable.

4. Do not use low contrast to indicate a disabled state. Use some other type of persistent indicator. Ensure that indicator is separately perceivable from focus so that a disabled control can be focused and easily perceived as disabled.

The APG could propose various designs for options 3 and 4 and delineate the tradeoffs when compared to options 1 and 2.
The APG might recommend specific options for specific scenarios. One of the common scenarios discussed is a calendar grid with certain dates or ranges of dates that are disabled."

[JAWS-test]

@a11ydoer I think that's good, but it goes far beyond what I suggested, i.e. it might be a new issue. My only concern was whether in the passage where some elements are supposed to be focusable in deactivated state, some elements are missing, i.e. I did not understand why some elements are mentioned but others are not.