[Bug 19145] New: <aside> should have default implicit ARIA semantic of "complementary"

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=19145

           Summary: <aside> should have default implicit ARIA semantic of
                    "complementary"
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: All
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec
        AssignedTo: erika.doyle@microsoft.com
        ReportedBy: jason@accesscult.org
         QAContact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org,
                    public-html@w3.org


The current default implicit ARIA semantic for <aside> is "note". See section
3.2.7.4 Implicit ARIA Semantics [1].

It is proposed that this be changed to "complementary" for the following
reasons:

A. The definition of <aside> [2] seems more closely aligned to the definition
of
the "complementary" role [3] than it does to the definition of the "note" role
[4], particularly with regard to the element's content still being meaningful
when separated from the surrounding content. 

B. Firefox/Win and Safari/Mac, the only two browsers currently mapping
additional semantics for <aside> to the accessibility APIs, both map it to the
"complementary" role, Firefox/Win using an IA2 "xml-roles" object attribute and
Safari/Mac an AXSubrole of AXLandmarkComplementary.

C. The HTML to Platform Accessibility APIs Implementation Guide advises that
browsers map the <aside> element to the "complementary" role where the
accessibility API permits [5].


[1] http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/wai-aria.html#sec-implicit-aria-semantics
[2] http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec/the-aside-element.html#the-aside-element
[3] http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/roles#complementary
[4] http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/roles#note
[5] http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/html-api-map/raw-file/tip/Overview.html#el-8

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Received on Sunday, 30 September 2012 02:04:10 UTC