W3C First Public Working Draft
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The Digital Publishing Accessibility API Mappings (DPub-AAM) defines how user agents map the Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module [dpub-aria-1.1] markup to platform accessibility APIs. It is intended for user agent developers responsible for accessibility in their user agent so that they can support the accessibility content produced for digital publishing.
The implementation of this specification in user agents enables authors to produce more accessible e-books, by conveying structural book constructs used by the digital publishing industry to assistive technologies. It does this by extending the Core Accessibility API Mappings 1.1 [CORE-AAM-1.1] and the Accessible Name and Description: Computation and API Mappings 1.1 [ACCNAME-AAM-1.1] specifications for user agents. It provides Accessibility API Mapping guidance for the roles defined in the Digital Publish WAI-ARIA Module.
The DPub-AAM is part of the WAI-ARIA suite described in the WAI-ARIA Overview.
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at https://www.w3.org/TR/.
DPub-AAM 1.1 provides updated mappings to support Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.1 [dpub-aria-1.1]. The primary aim of the Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.1 is to address some bugs discovered since the release of the original module, and it includes a few other changes. Please file comments about dpub-aria features on that specification; this specification only defines mappings for those features. For a complete list of changes addressed in this revision, please refer to the change log.
This document was published by the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group as a First Public Working Draft using the Recommendation track.
Publication as a First Public Working Draft does not imply endorsement by W3C and its Members.
This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
This document was produced by a group operating under the 1 August 2017 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
This document is governed by the 2 November 2021 W3C Process Document.
This section is non-normative.
As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.
The key words MAY, MUST, MUST NOT, OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, and SHOULD in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
This specification indicates whether a section is normative or informative and the classification applies to the entire section. A statement "This section is normative" or "This section is informative" applies to all sub-sections of that section.
Normative sections provide requirements that user agents must follow for an implementation to conform to this specification. The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL in this document are to be interpreted as described in Keywords for use in RFCs to indicate requirement levels [RFC2119]. RFC-2119 keywords are formatted in uppercase and contained in a strong
element with class="rfc2119"
. When the keywords shown above are used, but do not share this format,
they do not convey formal information in the RFC 2119 sense, and are merely explanatory, i.e., informative. As much as possible, such usages are avoided in this specification.
Informative sections provide information useful to understanding the specification. Such sections may contain examples of recommended practice, but it is not required to follow such recommendations in order to conform to this specification.
Enabling keyboard navigation in web applications is a necessary step toward making accessible web applications possible. Conforming user agents MUST conform to Supporting Keyboard Navigation requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
This section MUST conform to General rules for exposing WAI-ARIA semantics in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
User agents MUST conform to Conflicts between native markup semantics and WAI-ARIA in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
User agents MUST conform to Exposing attributes that do not directly map to accessibility API properties in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
Platform accessibility APIs traditionally have had a finite set of predefined roles that are expected by assistive technologies on that platform and only one or two roles may be exposed. In contrast, WAI-ARIA allows multiple roles to be specified as an ordered set of space-separated valid role tokens. The additional roles are fallback roles similar to the concept of specifying multiple fonts in case the first choice font type is not supported.
User agents MUST conform to the Role Mapping General Rules accessibility API computational requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
Translators: For label text associated with the following table and its toggle buttons, see the mappingTableLabels
object in the <head>
section of this document.
This section defines how WAI-ARIA digital publishing roles map to platform accessibility APIs. Elements having roles with a prefix value of doc-
, that are not listed in this role mapping table, have no normative mappings.
There are a number of roles mappings that are localized. The group needs to look into localizing for non-English languages.
[Note 2] This specification does not currently contain guidance for when user agents should fire system alert events. Some guidance may be added to the specification at a later date but it will be a recommendation (should), not a requirement (must).
This section describes how to expose WAI-ARIA states and object properties. User agents MUST conform to the State and Property Mapping accessibility API computational requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
When computing an accessible name or accessible description, user agents MUST conform to the section titled Text Alternative Computation of the [ACCNAME-AAM-1.1] specification.
User agents MUST conform to the Widget Values accessibility API computational requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
User agents MUST conform to the Relation accessibility API computational requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
User agents MUST conform to the Group Position accessibility API computational requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
User agents MUST conform to the Actions accessibility API computational requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
User agents fire events for user actions, WAI-ARIA state changes, changes to document content or node visibility, changes in selection, and operation of menus. Conforming user agents MUST support the [CORE-AAM-1.1] Events mappings.
User agents MUST conform to the Special Document Handling Procedures in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
This section is non-normative.
The following people contributed to the development of this document.
This publication has been funded in part with U.S. Federal funds from the Department of Education, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), initially under contract number ED-OSE-10-C-0067 and currently under contract number HHSP23301500054C. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.