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Bug 13547 - overloading of input element is confusing
Summary: overloading of input element is confusing
Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: HTML WG
Classification: Unclassified
Component: LC1 HTML5 spec (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Hardware: PC Windows NT
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Ian 'Hixie' Hickson
QA Contact: HTML WG Bugzilla archive list
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: a11y, a11ytf
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2011-08-03 00:50 UTC by Cynthia Shelly
Modified: 2011-12-16 23:44 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:


Attachments

Description Cynthia Shelly 2011-08-03 00:50:40 UTC
Attributes of the input element only work with certain types.  This was true in HTML 4, but with the introduction of new types becomes much more of an issue.  Even in HTML 4, use of the @alt attribute with input types other than image was a common authoring error.  With all of the new types and their associated attributes, this is more confusing, and we are concerned that it will introduce more authoring errors.  Like using @alt on input types that don't support it results in inputs with no accessibility name, mis-use of other attributes can cause accessibility problems.

We recognize the backward-compatibility value of using <input>, and that it may be necessary to support that for some time.  We would like to create a roadmap for deprecating overloaded input in favor of elements with dedicated attributes.
Comment 1 Kornel Lesinski 2011-08-03 20:28:21 UTC
http://validator.nu correctly catches <input type=text alt=foo> case.

If I understand the spec correctly, attributes that don't apply to current input state are ignored. If presence of @alt causes some kinds of inputs to be inaccessible, then it looks like a UA bug to me.
Comment 2 Michael[tm] Smith 2011-08-04 05:16:30 UTC
mass-move component to LC1
Comment 3 Ian 'Hixie' Hickson 2011-08-14 07:04:31 UTC
EDITOR'S RESPONSE: This is an Editor's Response to your comment. If you are satisfied with this response, please change the state of this bug to CLOSED. If you have additional information and would like the editor to reconsider, please reopen this bug. If you would like to escalate the issue to the full HTML Working Group, please add the TrackerRequest keyword to this bug, and suggest title and text for the tracker issue; or you may create a tracker issue yourself, if you are able to do so. For more details, see this document:
   http://dev.w3.org/html5/decision-policy/decision-policy.html

Status: Rejected
Change Description: no spec change
Rationale: Ever deprecating <input> is unrealistic, IMHO. However, if you think you can come up with a roadmap for doing so and can actually convince browser vendors to go along with it, please don't hesitate to reopen this bug.