- From: Janina Sajka <janina@rednote.net>
- Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 15:18:14 -0500
- To: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
- Cc: "Cain, Sally" <sally.cain@rnib.org.uk>, Aaron M Leventhal <aleventh@us.ibm.com>, public-pfwg-comments@w3.org, w3c-wai-pf@w3.org, w3c-wai-pf-request@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org
Ian Hickson writes: > > On Wed, 28 Jan 2009, Cain, Sally wrote: > > > > I think we need to realise that many people who write html are not > > techies and this is where this subtlety will prove even more confusing. > > I am an advocate of simplicity and clear language and as such I think it > > is much more preferable to call the html5 tag exactly what it is. > > It represents a dialog... the problem isn't that the HTML5 element isn't > called what it is, the problem is that the word that is used to describe > what it is also happens to have another meaning in the tech world. > > The reason I suggested renaming the ARIA keyword is that "dialog" is an > abbreviation for what the ARIA keyword means (it's a dialog box, not just > a dialog, that it is referring to), whereas the HTML5's element name is > not an abbreviation (one refers to dialogs as just dialogs). > > I think that non-techies are far less likely to be confused by this (since > they don't know that the computer things are called "dialog boxes") than > techies, to be honest. If non-techies are the concern, then I would be > even more of the opinion that the ARIA keyword is the one that should > change. > > However, as noted before, I'm fine with neither changing; I was only > raising this issue because it was one of the issues on my list of feedback > and I was interested in working with the WAIPF on this issue to see if it > would be possible for the WAIPF to consider changing the keyword instead. > In an ideal world, yes. Unfortunately, we live in the world of budgets, FTE's, delivery due dates, and all that in today's economic climate. The problem is that far too much implementing code is deployed for ARIA to change at this point. We're too far downstream for that. Janina Sajka, WAI-PF Co-Chair > Cheers, > -- > Ian Hickson U+1047E )\._.,--....,'``. fL > http://ln.hixie.ch/ U+263A /, _.. \ _\ ;`._ ,. > Things that are impossible just take longer. `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.' -- Janina Sajka, Phone: +1.202.595.7777; sip:janina@CapitalAccessibility.Com Partner, Capital Accessibility LLC http://CapitalAccessibility.Com Marketing the Owasys 22C talking screenless cell phone in the U.S. and Canada Learn more at http://ScreenlessPhone.Com Chair, Open Accessibility janina@a11y.org Linux Foundation http://a11y.org
Received on Wednesday, 28 January 2009 20:19:02 UTC