[Bug 8000] New: ARIA roles added to the a element should be conforming in HTML5

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=8000

           Summary: ARIA roles added to the a element should be conforming
                    in HTML5
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Windows NT
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec bugs
        AssignedTo: dave.null@w3.org
        ReportedBy: faulkner.steve@gmail.com
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: ian@hixie.ch, mike@w3.org, public-html@w3.org


Currently the a element is defined in the HTML5 specification as an element
that cannot have its native role overriden by ARIA roles [1]

This is contrary to use in the wild as it has been overriden by the addition of
a number of roles in popular javascript UI libraries.

Examples:
button
http://jqueryui.com/demos/dialog/
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/carousel/carousel-ariaplugin_source.html
tab
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/tabview/tabview-ariaplugin_clean.html
menutiem
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/menu/menuwaiaria_source.html


It is important to understand that it is not ARIA that is making the link into
a button, its the developers use of javascript, event handlers and CSS that is
making it look and act like a button or tab or menutiem. The addition of ARIA
is merely providing the information that other users get by default. So making
the addition of an ARIA role non conforming, to an element that has been
designed to act and look like something other than its native role, is not the
appropriate repsonse.
The reasons for creating ARIA centered around the inability of the HTML
specification to address how author would create content. In fact, with the
exception of forms, it was assumed that HTML would only be used for documents.
Clearly, that was a miscalculation. 

It is essential that authors be given the tools to produce accessible
applications. The perception, by some, is that ARIA is meant to circumvent the
semantics of the host language, but rather it is the author that is
circumventing the host language to create UI controls that satisfy their needs.
WAI-ARIA simply provides the semantics to make them interoperabile with
assistive technologies.

refer to thread on public HTML mailing list starting here:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Oct/0694.html


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Received on Wednesday, 21 October 2009 17:07:47 UTC