PFWG-ISSUE-683 (aria-level not required for role=heading): The aria-level attribute is not required for role=heading within the spec, but should be. [ARIA 1.1]

Forwarding this to the public PFWG list, since this doesn't happen automatically.

-----Original Message-----
From: Protocols and Formats Working Group Issue Tracker [mailto:sysbot+tracker@w3.org] 
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2014 4:38 PM
To: w3c-wai-pf@w3.org
Subject: PFWG-ISSUE-683 (aria-level not required for role=heading): The aria-level attribute is not required for role=heading within the spec, but should be. [ARIA 1.1]

PFWG-ISSUE-683 (aria-level not required for role=heading): The aria-level attribute is not required for role=heading within the spec, but should be. [ARIA 1.1]

https://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/Group/track/issues/683


Raised by: Bryan Garaventa
On product: ARIA 1.1

According to the spec text in the Roles Model at http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/roles#heading

Where it states: "If headings are organized into a logical outline, the aria-level attribute can be used to indicate the nesting level."

And within the UAIG at
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-implementation/#mapping_role_table

It states: "The heading level is specified by the aria-level property."

Since there is no use case within a document structure where headings don't represent a logical outline, the aria-level attribute should be a required attribute, and default to a specific numerical value when omitted from the markup. For instance, there is no such HTML equivalent to represent a heading with no level.
E.G <h> Does not exist </h>

Within the Roles Model, the text should instead state: 
"The aria-level attribute must be used to indicate the nesting level."

And within the UAIG, the value of an undefined aria-level attribute within a role=heading element should default to 1 within the accessibility tree for browsers.

Received on Friday, 24 October 2014 23:41:49 UTC