WAI-ARIA 1.1: role= None and role=presentation

I suggest two alternatives with my preference for the first: 
i. If the perception is that developers do not understand use of role=presentation, then the  solution is to clarify its usage in the specs / education material. Makers of user agents / AT should not be required to make a change if they already support role=presentation.
 ii. Sure role=none makes better sense than role=presentation from a wording / semantic  perspective. 
Instead of retaining role=presentation, consider deprecating role=presentation.
Deprecating it will give a clear signal to makers of user agents / AT and in the interim, validators can flag "warning" for role=presentation.
Defining two roles with identical  functionality will make it difficult for makers of user agent / AT. Some will support it sooner or later or not at all. They may  not regard supporting role=none as critical if they already support role=presentation.

Developers will need to cope with this problem by setting role=presentation and role=none to deal with user agent variations. 

Thanks,
Sailesh Panchang

Received on Thursday, 30 July 2015 18:20:46 UTC