[Bug 24274] New: Specify ARIA role of area element with @alt but which do *not* create hyperlinks

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=24274

            Bug ID: 24274
           Summary: Specify ARIA role of area element with @alt but which
                    do *not* create hyperlinks
           Product: HTML WG
           Version: unspecified
          Hardware: PC
               URL: http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/dom.html#
                    sec-strong-native-semantics
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Keywords: a11y
          Severity: major
          Priority: P3
         Component: HTML5 spec
          Assignee: dave.null@w3.org
          Reporter: xn--mlform-iua@xn--mlform-iua.no
        QA Contact: public-html-bugzilla@w3.org
                CC: mike@w3.org, public-html-admin@w3.org,
                    public-html-wg-issue-tracking@w3.org

It is currently undefined how an area element with alternative text but without
href attribute is treated by AT.

Current VoiceOver behavior: In an image map, then *even if* an area element
lacks the @href attribute,  VoiceOver will announce it as a *link* as long as
the area element in question have alternative text.

Per my own proposal, an area element without href should be conforming and
should be treated as an equivalent of an anchor element without href attribute.
This could be useful e.g. to in navigational menus. For instance, if a map is
used to link to different counties were “our organisation is represented, a
”dead” area element can be used to explain that an area does is a place were
"our organization" is not represented. This can be shown visually, by some text
or symbol the image, and could then be represented to AT etc via an area
element without href. (See bug 13814 and bug 24273 for use cases.)

But regardless of whether this should be conforming or not, the spec should
define how area elements that do not create hyperlinks should be announced (if
they should be announced at all) to users - should they be treated as having
hyperlink role? Or simply as text role or as having aria-hidden="true"?

(Btw, it is also not defined what  role anchor elements without href attribute
have. However, content of anchor element does not rely on attributes for being
perceivable by default, thus it is not as obvious that it is needed to be
explicit about anchor elements wihtout href as it is for area elements without
href.)

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Received on Saturday, 11 January 2014 22:41:25 UTC