Re: From the HTML-WG about aria-hidden

Laura Carlson, Thu, 16 Feb 2012 10:55:09 -0600:

>> If feel that you misrepresent ISSUE-204:
> 
> Maybe I don't understand the Jonas' proposal then.

If so, then may be because ISSUE-204 links some issue that strictly 
speaking aren't linked. 

Because there isn't necessarily a link between -  on one side - the 
richer user experience that Jonas wants to offer, and on the other 
side, the permission for @aria-describedby to point to @hidden content: 
A case for permitting aria-describedby to point to @hidden content 
could be made on its own account. It is enough to point to ARIA's 
inclusion of hidden content in its accessible name calculation.

It is only linked to ISSUE-204 because Jonas uses the the improved 
presentation of aria-describedby=hiddenElement that he is working on, 
as a carrot for permitting it.

>> I agree that *if* ISSUE-204 introduces problems, then they are on the
>> authoring level - in their ability to understand @hidden.
> 
> What about the user level? What is impacted?

At the user level, the impact is meant to lead to a richer experience. 
E.g. instead of flattening the following link to a text string, the 
user instead receives it as a link: 

<img src=image aria-describedby=description alt=text >
<a id=description hidden=hidden aria-hidden=true
   href=link >Link to long description.</a>

And according to Jonas, last week in public-html@, then whether the AT 
would perceive the above link as link, would not depend on the AT - but 
on the UA. If that is so, then it diminishes the possible downsides a 
lot: The only requirement would then be that the AT supports 
@aria-describedby. 

>> But, from
>> another angle: Authors are already used to the fact that AT users need
>> info that other users should not see.
> 
> I can assure you that not all authors and web designers are aware of that.

The alternative to using @hidden, would be to hide the link in another 
way. But fact is that if the link's only purpose is to be visible to AT 
via @aria-describedby, then ARIA tells you to use aria-hidden=true 
*and* visually hide it - with display:none or with another 'trick'. It 
is not unlikely that many authors would find it simpler to use a single 
attribute, @hidden, which does two tricks at once: visual hiding and 
aria-hidden=true.
-- 
Leif Halvard Silli

Received on Friday, 17 February 2012 02:17:25 UTC