Re: conformance checker for HTML+ARIA?

> It doesn't resolve the whole issue of ensuring that ARIA is used
> correctly with a native markup language, but if the ARIA specification
> is available in a machine readable format [...] we could build a basic
> validator to ensure at least the ARIA part is used according to its
> specification.

Most authors would be using it with HTML - so that would be a good start.  
There are several options:

1)  an HTML validator that simply ignores any ARIA information - so it  
doesn't conformance check the ARIA at all, but doesn't fail a page because  
ARIA is present. (That's useful for knowledgeable early adopters who have  
an organisational policy that requires valid markup. Perhaps they are  
committed to WCAG AA which "requires" validity, for example).

So perhaps it throws a warning ("please check the syntax and applicability  
of the ARIA attributes you use") but no error.

2) an HTML validator that also syntax-checks ARIA attributes to make sure  
it's used according to its spec

3) a full validator that ensures ARIA is used correctly with the native  
markup language. I believe this is impossible now as there are issues  
about how to specify this.

So (3) is impossible, (2) would  be very useful, although the spec might  
change, while (1) could be built now, and at least removes impediments to  
adoption, even it isn't "helping".

bruce