It is currently undefined how an area element with alternative text but without href attribute is treated by AT.

Current VoiceOver behavior: In an image map, then *even if* an area element lacks the @href attribute,  VoiceOver will announce it as a *link* as long as the area element in question have alternative text.

Per my own proposal, an area element without href should be conforming and should be treated as an equivalent of an anchor element without href attribute. This could be useful e.g. to in navigational menus. For instance, if a map is used to link to different counties were “our organisation is represented, a ”dead” area element can be used to explain that an area does is a place were "our organization" is not represented. This can be shown visually, by some text or symbol the image, and could then be represented to AT etc via an area element without href. (See bug 13814 and bug 24273 for use cases.)

But regardless of whether this should be conforming or not, the spec should define how area elements that do not create hyperlinks should be announced (if they should be announced at all) to users - should they be treated as having hyperlink role? Or simply as text role or as having aria-hidden="true"?

(Btw, it is also not defined what  role anchor elements without href attribute have. However, content of anchor element does not rely on attributes for being perceivable by default, thus it is not as obvious that it is needed to be explicit about anchor elements wihtout href as it is for area elements without href.)