Re: H85 optgroup

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Sailesh Panchang <
sailesh.panchang@deque.com> wrote:

>
> The techniques doc notes for H85:
> The optgroup element is not widely supported by screen readers.
> The label attribute for option and optgroup is supported inconsistently
> across user agents and is not widely supported by assistive technologies.
>
> Comment:
> Why include it as a sufficient technique then for 1.3.1?
> It is confusing because it is not AT supported.
> ARIA techniques too are excluded from sufficient techniques for the same
> reason, right?
> Sailesh Panchang
> Accessibility Services Manager (Web and Software)
> Deque Systems Inc. (www.deque.com)
> 11130 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite #140,
> Reston VA 20191
> Phone: 703-225-0380 (ext 105)
> E-mail: sailesh.panchang@deque.com
>
>
>
================================
Response from the Working Group
================================
The optgroup element has been supported by mainstream web browsers for quite
some time and its use benefits a variety of users, including those using
magnification software and individuals with cognitive disabilities.

You are correct that if an author relies on the use of this technique to
convey grouping information to screen reader users using JAWS or
Window-Eyes, the grouping information will not be available. However, the
element is supported by a variety of assistive technologies today including
VoiceOver, NVDA, Orca and a variety of text-only browsers.

We hope that screen reader support for this and other markup will improve
over time and would encourage users of these tools to ask vendors to include
support for this markup. In this case, the working group feels that because
authors lack an alternative for including this information in a way that can
be programmatically determined, it should remain a sufficient technique.

We have revised the user agent notes and description sections of this
technique to include additional details about this issue.

Thanks.

Loretta Guarino Reid, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Gregg Vanderheiden, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Michael Cooper, WCAG WG Staff Contact


On behalf of the WCAG Working Group