Pointer grabs causing accessibility issues! Why not deprecate them?

[Francesco Fumanti]

Hello,

For a user, that can only rely on the pointer to do his input, pointer 
grabs seem to be at the root of different problems. Examples of such 
users are tabletpc users and disabled users; I will call them 
pointer-only users in the rest of the email.

These pointer-only users usually rely on an onscreen keyboard to do 
their typing. But if another application grabs the pointer, they will 
not be able to enter anything with the onscreen keyboard until that 
application releases the pointer grab. A concrete example without 
workaround is currently the policykit password dialog.

Instead of asking the different application programmers to provide a way 
to give pointer-only users full access, I wondered whether it would not 
be better to tackle the problem at the source by not giving them any 
pointer grabbing functionality!?

In fact, the purpose of this email is to make the xorg developer aware 
of the issue and ask them to consider whether deprecating the pointer 
grabbing functionality from the X server would make any sense and be 
feasible?

Many thanks in advance.

Francesco