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As I worked with reopening bug 10618 (see the 11th comment there: https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10618#c11), it became clear that the "Strong native semantics" section (and the concept of "strong native semantics") depends on the section/concept of Implict ARIA semantics". This depenndence relates, put simply, to the fact that strong native semantics is nothing but default implicit ARIA semantics that are considered to be be strong. (Exception that confirms the rule: features with no ARIA-defined role. However, if ARIA would define the meaning of "no ARIA-defined role", then one could consider "no ARIA-defined role" as a special variant of "implicit ARIA semantics".) How strong depends on default implicit ARIA semantics, is already expressed in the strong table and other places. (See bug 20697) To show this dependence and relationship, I propose to place the section on "Implicit ARIA Semantics" *before* the section on "Strong Native Semantics". As part of this reshuffle, then - inside the column heading for the second column of the "weak" table, pleace consider adding a link to the definition of 'default implicit ARIA semantics'
NEW PROPOSAL: To not deviate further from the WHATWG spec, do not (necessarily) change the order of Strong vs Implict semantics. Instead create a new parent section called "Implicit ARIA Semantics" and rename the current "Implicit ARIA semantics" section to "Restricted ARIA semantics". Expressed in pseudo-code: <section><h1>Implicit Semantics</h1> <p><!-- Definion of "no ARIA-defined role" goes here see bug 10618.--></p> <p><!-- This encompassing section should explain that all/most(?) HTML features have default native semantics, which can be overridden by the role attribute. And then the two next subsections should put restrictions on some of the HTML features.--></p> <p><!-- Also, as long as the spec doesn't list the native role of *ALL* elements (such as <table>, which most certainly defaults to no role), then this section should clarify that the HTML spec does *not* list the default implicit ARIA semantis of all elemnets --></p> <section><h1>Strong Native Sematics</h1> <!-- Keep roughly as is --> </section> <section><h1>Restricted Native Semantics</h1> <!--"Restricted Native Semantics" seems like a muuch more telling term.---> </section> <section> JUSTIFICATION: The current headings (and deviation from the WHATWG spec) first occurred in this WD: http://www.w3.org/TR/2012/WD-html5-20121025/ Before this change, the spec had (more or less direct) the dichotomy "Strong native semantics" versus "Weak native semantics". This can still be seen in the idrefs of the tables, which are "table-aria-weak" vs "table-aria-strong". But fact is that "weak" has connotations that are different from the current "Implicit ARIA Semantics" heading. The specs current title does in fact open up for confusion such as the question: Why doesn't the table over "Implicit ARIA semantics" mot list *all* the elements that have default implicit ARIA semantics? For example, why does it not list the table element, whose role most certainly should be "no role", but which can be overriden by other role? The answer, in the table element’s case, is that there is no specified limitation on the exact roles it could take. Thus, like many other elements, it can take any role. And, as long as the (implied) title of this table was "weak native aria semantics", then it was more obvioius why 'table' did not occur in the table. ADVANTAGES: I believe that the proposed new structure clarifies that *all* this (both strong and restricted ARIA semantics) is aspects of "Implicit ARIA semantics". Further more, the proposed new structure eliminates the current confusion linked to the current heading named "Implicit ARIA semantics".
Hi Leif, rather than make major changes to this section, I have provided pointers to documents for authors that do provide unambiguous guidance. 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-v3.html Status: rejected Change Description: added note with references https://github.com/w3c/html/commit/38ffe22ebc22e1a0f8e6e0788fe426e402df1fc8 Rationale: The primary audience of this section is implementers it does not provide clear or adequate info for authors, other W3C documents do.