Re: [NVDA] #2390: NVDA doesn't handle role=dialog with supporting ARIA attributes according to spec

Copying Jamie.

On May 30, 2012, at 10:27 PM, Bryan Garaventa <bryan.garaventa@whatsock.com> wrote:

> I understand your point, but this isn't what I'm referring to. I'll forward the message I sent to the ARIA group for clarity.

For what it's worth, I agree with your point that NVDA should trust the author to define dialog descriptions where needed. I think you're right that it's not implemented according to the intention of the spec, as it's treating dialog description the same way as alertdialog… 

That said, I also see Jamie's point about trying to do what's best for his users, and the ARIA spec only makes RFC-2119 "MUST" and "MUST NOT" requirements for Authors and User Agents, not for Assistive Technologies, so there is no place in the spec that it says AT must not do this… Even the statement in alertdialog isn't a normative requirement for AT; it's an normative author requirement followed by an informative statement about what assistive technologies can or might do. We have a lot of SHOULD and MAY statements in the spec for AT, but no MUST statements.

Assistive technologies like screen readers differentiate themselves by their behavior, for better or worse, and it's outside the scope of the W3C to dictate how they work. The closest thing ARIA and the ARIA-UAIG can do is define how authors code it, how user agents expose it to APIs (even this is debatable at times), and make recommendations to screen readers and other assistive technology. 

I think your best bet with this "enhancement request" is to win Jamie and Mick over with persuasion rather than by telling them it's a bug. You may be able to find a good compromise.

Good luck,
James

Received on Thursday, 31 May 2012 06:01:37 UTC