Re: Example 2

On Mon, Sep 19, 2011 at 4:11 PM, <noreply@w3.org> wrote:

>
> Name: Makoto Ueki
> Email: makoto.ueki@gmail.com
> Affiliation: WAIC (Japan) / Infoaxia, Inc.
> Document: TD
> Item Number: SCR20
> Part of Item: Examples
> Comment Type: question
> Summary of Issue: Example 2
> Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
> The note reads "Even though this is currently invalid, it is provided as a
> transitional technique to make this function work."
> Was this technique used before? This example looks very strange because
> none of WAIC working group members have used this technique before. We would
> simply use <a> element for this. This example is not useful.
>
>
>
> Proposed Change:
> Could you tell us the reason why this example is needed?
> In our opinion, this example should be deleted.
>
> ================================
Response from the Working Group
================================
Using and manipulating non-semantic elements does happen increasingly in
self-styled widgets, mostly because designers don't want the default
appearance of semantic elements (think of checkboxes) and sometimes because
they want extended functionality (for example, to express 'partly checked'
above a group of checkboxes). To the extent that self-styled widgets have
become more popular, we provide this example to demonstrate how to add
keyboard access. As we add WAI-ARIA techniques, we hope to provide better
examples of custom controls.

We are making the following changes to help people understand the purpose of
this example:

Change first sentence of the example to: "This example shows a custom image
control for which both the mouse and the keyboard can be used to activate
the function."

Add to end of note: "Custom controls like this should also use WAI-ARIA to
expose the role and state of the control."


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