[Bug 11557] Authors should not be allowed to specify roles on elements that they already have by default. It's redundant and encourages authors to add roles in cargo-cult fashion on the theory that this will improve their accessibility. See IRC for proof: http://kr

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=11557

--- Comment #6 from Tab Atkins Jr. <jackalmage@gmail.com> 2010-12-15 19:12:56 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #5)
> if browsers expose correct roles via accessibility APIs there should be no
> issue for AT. which is the case for all AT I know of.  Some newer HTML5
> controls such as input type=number" are implemented incorrectly, in chrome (for
> example) the control is visually a spinbutton but exposed as textbox in such
> cases use of an aria role can improve the AT users understanding of a control.

That's a browser bug - Chrome is explicitly violating the spec at the moment. 
It will presumably be fixed in due course.

Allowing, or even worse, encouraging authors to use redundant markup to fix a
temporary browser bug in this area really risks the cargo-cult problem that
Aryeh cites in the OP.  I'm okay with pages doing things for temporary compat
fixes that are discouraged officially; we've all had to do that.  That doesn't
mean we should encourage them, if we can strike early enough before the
"temporary compat fix" becomes "accepted wisdom".

Note that the IRC convo cited as evidence is of an author using @role and other
aria-* attributes on <select> and <option>, which *are* exposed correctly by
accessibility APIs.

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Received on Wednesday, 15 December 2010 19:12:59 UTC