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Bug 28741 - Need to clarify sectioning ancestors of <footer> and <header>
Summary: Need to clarify sectioning ancestors of <footer> and <header>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: ARIA
Classification: Unclassified
Component: HTML AAM (show other bugs)
Version: 1.1
Hardware: PC All
: P2 normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: steve faulkner
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Reported: 2015-06-03 05:36 UTC by Jason Kiss
Modified: 2015-06-24 08:20 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description Jason Kiss 2015-06-03 05:36:55 UTC 
The entry for <footer> in the HTML5.1 spec [3] makes <footer> valid in <aside> and <nav> sectioning elements, as well sectioning roots, i.e. <blockquote>, <body>, <details>, <dialog>, <fieldset>, <figure>, and <td>. Surely this is the same scenario as <footer> in <article> or <section>, namely it does not represent an ARIA "contentinfo" landmark.

If this is right, then the a11y mapping needs to make this clear, and not restrict the condition to ancestor <article> and <section> elements. It needs to distinguish between "footer (nearest sectioning element ancestor is body)", in which case it has a "contentinfo" role, and "footer (nearest sectioning element ancestor is not body)" where it has no default ARIA role. 

The same situation would apply to <header> and the "banner" role.