[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #54421: Deprecate skip link focus fix

[WordPress Trac]

#54421: Deprecate skip link focus fix
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
 Reporter:  westonruter  |       Owner:  westonruter
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  accepted
 Priority:  low          |   Milestone:  5.9
Component:  Bundled      |     Version:  3.6
  Theme                  |
 Severity:  minor        |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch    |     Focuses:  accessibility, javascript,
                         |  performance
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
Changes (by westonruter):

 * severity:  trivial => minor


Old description:

> Six of the core themes have the skip link focus fix which was needed
> specifically for IE11. However, now that IE11 market share is at ~0.5%,
> it seems a waste to include the script on every single page even when
> barely any visitor will benefit from it.
>
> Note that the WordPress announcement post for
> [https://wordpress.org/news/2021/05/dropping-support-for-internet-
> explorer-11/ Dropping support for Internet Explorer 11] does say that no
> changes to bundled themes would be done as part of the plan, including:
>
> > No code related to IE11 support (or any other browser that may have
> been supported when each theme was released) will be removed from default
> themes.
>
> Nevertheless, I think an exception can be made here given only a fraction
> of IE11 users (which is already a very small fraction of users) would
> also need this focus fix.
>
> So I suggest we:
>
> 1. Remove the `add_action()` call to print the script at
> `wp_print_footer_scripts`.
> 2. We add a `@deprecated` tag to the `*_skip_link_focus_fix` functions.

New description:

 Six of the core themes have the skip link focus fix which was needed
 specifically for IE11. However, now that IE11 market share is at ~0.5%, it
 seems a waste to include the script on every single page even when barely
 any visitor will benefit from it.

 Note that the WordPress announcement post for
 [https://wordpress.org/news/2021/05/dropping-support-for-internet-
 explorer-11/ Dropping support for Internet Explorer 11] does say that no
 changes to bundled themes would be done as part of the plan, including:

 > No code related to IE11 support (or any other browser that may have been
 supported when each theme was released) will be removed from default
 themes.

 Nevertheless, I think an exception can be made here given only a fraction
 of IE11 users (which is already a very small fraction of users) would also
 need this focus fix.

 So I suggest we:

 1. Remove the `add_action()` call to print the script at
 `wp_print_footer_scripts`.
 2. We add a `@deprecated` tag to the `*_skip_link_focus_fix` functions.
 3. Discontinue enqueueing `skip-link-focus-fix` scripts in older themes,
 but continue to register them.

--

Comment:

 When working on the patch I realized that Twenty Fifteen, Twenty Sixteen,
 and Twenty Seventeen enqueue an external script for the skip link focus
 fix, so the severity is higher for those themes.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/54421#comment:8>
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