[Bug 10478] modify table, tr and td roles

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=10478


Ian 'Hixie' Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Status|NEW                         |RESOLVED
                 CC|                            |ian@hixie.ch
         Resolution|                            |WONTFIX




--- Comment #3 from Ian 'Hixie' Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>  2010-09-07 17:07:05 ---
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Status: Rejected
Change Description: no spec change
Rationale: 

(In reply to comment #0)
> The table, tr and td elements are  repurposed by authors to create  widgets
> such as tab strips, menus, buttons and toolbars, they are also widely used for
> layout and positioning of content. Allow appropriate widget roles and
> role="presentation" on these elements to reflect this.

Using tables in this way is non-conforming. The way to make such a page
accessible and conforming is to fix the page to use appropriate markup, not to
add ARIA. On the other hand, if the author doesn't care about conformance then
it doesn't matter what ARIA is allowed, so changing this wouldn't matter.


> These currently have default ARIA roles that are incorrect, the ARIA grid,
> gridcell and row roles do not map to HTML table, td and row as these elements
> are not primarily interactive 'widgets'.

ARIA explicitly says that "grid" is equivalent to HTML table, that "row" is
equivalent to HTML tr, and that "gridcell" is equivalent to HTML td. If this is
wrong, then ARIA should be fixed; I would be glad to update HTML when ARIA
changes, but I do not think we should go out of sync in the meantime.


> td     default role= none    
> If specified, role must be one of the following: button, checkbox,
> gridcell,link, menuitem, menuitemcheckbox, menuitemradio, option, radio,
> slider, spinbutton, scrollbar, tab, treeitem or presentation. 

How can a data table cell ever legitimately be any of these other than
gridcell? Can you show conforming examples where these roles are used?


> table     default role= none 
> If specified, role must be one of the following: alertdialog, dialog,
> directory, grid, list, listbox, menu, menubar, tablist, toolbar, tree, treegrid
> or presentation. 

Same question.


> tr     default role=none    
> If specified, role must be one of the following: list, listbox, menu, menubar,
> row, tablist, toolbar, tree, directory or presentation.

Same question.


(In reply to comment #2)
> Note: even though the ARIA definition of the "grid" role may sound like it
> applies to a table, in fact it is meant to be limited to interactive controls.
> I submitted a comment on the ARIA spec to have the wording clarified:
> 
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pfwg-comments/2010JulSep/0029.html

It doesn't just sound like it applies to tables, it explicitly says it is
equivalent to tables. Search for "HTML table" in the role chapter and the only
two hits are saying how "grid" and "rowgroup" are the right roles for <table>
and <tbody> respectively.

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Received on Tuesday, 7 September 2010 17:07:08 UTC