[Bug 23888] 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

--- Comment #1 from steve faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com> ---
(In reply to Sailesh Panchang from comment #0)
> 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. 

the ARIA spec is host language agnostic and leaves up to the host language to
define conformance constraints.

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. 

yes it does as per the ARIA spec the alert role overrides the native host
language role.

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


suggested alternatives:

<h1 aria-live="assertive">heading text</h1>

<h1> <span role="alert">heading text</span></h1>

<ul aria-live="assertive">...

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Received on Saturday, 23 November 2013 09:51:00 UTC