Re: How is aria-interactive different than tabindex=-1

> On May 20, 2015, at 16:43, Matthew King <mattking@us.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> "Gunderson, Jon R" <jongund@illinois.edu> wrote on 05/20/2015 12:55:43 PM:
>> I am wondering how the proposed aria-interactive is different from
>> tabindex=-1?
>> Both indicate an element has behavior, and the absence of tabindex
>> attribute means no behavior (e.g. aria-interactive=false)
>
> Tabindex does not affect mapping. A gridcell in a grid with no tabindex specified is still a grid ... it just missing tabindex.
> Current proposal is that an element with role grid and aria-interactive=false would be mapped as a static table is mapped.

And that’s the contentious point in this discussion.

To make the matter even more confusing to typical software developers (the concern that Jon rightly raised), we also have aria-readonly and aria-disabled. Of these, aria-disabled is closest in function to aria-interactive=false, except, again, for the accessibility API mapping.

ARIA is already a complex specification. The direction which ARIA 1.1 is taking makes it even more dependent on subtle semantic distinctions that run the risk of leading to errors in the implementation of Web applications by well-intentioned ARIA non-experts. ARIA is “invisible metadata” as Charles McCathieNevile put it in a related context, and this exacerbates the problem.

To be clear, I think ARIA is much needed, very successful and that it makes a highly valuable practical contribution to the accessibility of the Web. However, the Web standardization community should think deeply and carefully about the risks of creating an increasingly complex specification primarily, if not solely, for purposes of accessibility, and should strive to find ways of making accessible application development possible without requiring authors to become specialists in the subtleties of accessibility API semantics. Perhaps the ARIA 2.0 discussion will be a suitable opportunity to rework the approach and to establish foundations for long-term extensibility. The integration of ARIA with Web components could also ease the burden on application authors.


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Received on Wednesday, 20 May 2015 21:35:57 UTC