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Spec Review/Details

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Under review:

Michael Cooper

The naming of the summary and details elements suggests a broader use case than the spec seems to indicate. It appears that this is meant to function much like fieldset and legend, except that the contents can be hidden (and are by default) and shown. Although the content model doesn't appear to restrict this, it appears from the examples that this is meant to be used mainly for widgets.

I can think of accessibility use cases for this or a similar element that I would like to see expanded. Primarily for accessibility, a summary that provides an easier-to-read version of the content that is in the details would be very helpful for people with reading and learning disabilities. It could also speed up browsing for AT users by facilitating review of short content while skipping detailed content unless desired. I can also imagine cases like a news site that provides a sentence-or-two summary that can be expanded to a full article.

It's not clear to me whether these elements meet these use cases or not. If they do, perhaps they should be in a different section, rather than cordoned off in the interactive elements section. Examples of these use cases in action would be helpful as well.

Michael to file bug suggesting examples to demonstrate above use cases Bug 13460