[Bug 23888] New: Not allowing role=alert on UL / OL / LI / H- tags. etc. is a needless constraint

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=23888

            Bug ID: 23888
           Summary: Not allowing role=alert on UL / OL / LI / H- tags.
                    etc. is a needless constraint
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Hardware: PC
                OS: Windows NT
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: HTML5 spec
          Assignee: dave.null@w3.org
          Reporter: sailesh.panchang@deque.com
        QA Contact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-admin@w3.org,
                    public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org

I am reviewing the 3-col table under
3.2.7.4 Implicit ARIA Semantics [1]

I see none of the items in the table allow role=alert.
I wonder why.
Referring to ARIA The Role Model doc[2], I see an alert is'A message with
important, and usually time-sensitive, information'. The
alert  role  goes on the node containing the alert message'.  
This does not suggest that role=alert should not go on an h tag or ul or li tag
etc. As it contains an important message, it should also be discoverable and
navigable  to because alerts are not meant to be closed and may remain on the
page as per the description for role=alert. That content needs to fit in with
the page's structure and if it does have proper structural markup depending on
context as appropriate, I see no harm. In fact it is better for WCAG 2. And 
Setting role=alert on a UL/OL or H-tag does not change the semantics of those
tags. They are still lists or headings or whatever.
So perhaps it will help to clarify why such a restriction is needed in the
first place. In fact I plead that this constraint be removed.

Here is an example of role=alert that works quite well and is AT supported on
FF, IE9/10 and OSX
http://mars.dequecloud.com/demo/form-alert2.htm
Thanks and regards,
Sailesh

[1]
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/dom.html#sec-strong-native-semantics 
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/roles#alert

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Received on Friday, 22 November 2013 17:17:50 UTC