Re: Change proposal for ISSUE-85

>Don't allow people to use ARIA to write inaccessible documents.

ARIA does not allow people to write inaccessible documents. Vague
statements  and lack of machine checkable conformance criteria in the
HTML5 specification in relation to the overloading and overriding of
elements default semantics and behaviours is the cause. ARIA merely
provides the author with the opportunity to communicate her authoring
intentions unambiguously via an accessibility API.

 >ARIA is useful for authors who need to make new widgets that HTML doesn't
> yet support. Buttons are supported by HTML, and therefore there is no
> reason for an author to make a link act like a button to ATs.

ARIA is also useful when authors for whatever reason decide to modify
or extend the behaviour of a supported HTML element, which they often
do.`q


> Making a link act like a button to ATs while leaving it as a link for
> non-AT users will lead to non-AT users having a confusing experience,
> since the author will think the link is going to appear as a button to
> users and may refer to it as such.

If it is acts like a link then it should be presented as a link to all
users, if it acts like a button the it should be presented to all
users as a button. making a link look and act like a button for some
users, but not conveying this to other users will result in a
confusing experience.

regards
Stevef

On 6 June 2010 02:34, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:
>
> ISSUE-85
> ========
>
> SUMMARY
>
> Don't allow people to use ARIA to write inaccessible documents.
>
>
> RATIONALE
>
> ARIA is useful for authors who need to make new widgets that HTML doesn't
> yet support. Buttons are supported by HTML, and therefore there is no
> reason for an author to make a link act like a button to ATs.
>
> Making a link act like a button to ATs while leaving it as a link for
> non-AT users will lead to non-AT users having a confusing experience,
> since the author will think the link is going to appear as a button to
> users and may refer to it as such.
>
>
> DETAILS
>
> No change.
>
>
> IMPACT
>
> POSITIVE EFFECTS
> Encourages authors to use HTML as intended.
>
> NEGATIVE EFFECTS
> None.
>
> CONFORMANCE CLASS CHANGES
> None.
>
> RISKS
> None.
>
> --
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
>
>
>



-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium

www.paciellogroup.com | www.wat-c.org
Web Accessibility Toolbar -
http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html

Received on Sunday, 6 June 2010 14:49:19 UTC