ISSUE-1035: Are additional roles or properties needed to help authors build interactive list and tree structures with complex items?

Complex lists and tree widgets

Are additional roles or properties needed to help authors build interactive list and tree structures with complex items?

State:

CLOSED

Product:

ARIA 2.0

Raised by:

Matthew King

Opened on:

2016-06-09

Description:

Authors need to be able to create list and tree structures that present complex children. For example, a list of search results where each result includes multiple focusable children in addition to other rich semantic information. It is also desirable that such structures function as a composite widget, i.e., the entire structure is a single tab stop and it is possible to navigate the list with the arrow keys.

Assistive technologies and most browsers treat option and treeitem elements as static; their children are treated as if they are presentational and their content is stringified when they are read by screen readers. The option role is used to represent an HTML option, which is not allowed to have interactive children.

ARIA 1.1 includes changes to grid so it can be used to create interactive lists and trees that contain composite items. The gridcell is a container that reveals the semantics of its children.

However, concerns remain that grid does not adequately support the needs of authors. See discussion in June 9, 2016 ARIA caucus:
http://www.w3.org/2016/06/09-aria-minutes.html

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