W3C home > Mailing lists > Public > public-html@w3.org > August 2009

Re: feedback requested on WAI CG Consensus Resolutions on Text alternatives in HTML 5 document

From: Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:39:01 +0000 (UTC)
To: Smylers <Smylers@stripey.com>
Cc: HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>, W3C WAI-XTECH <wai-xtech@w3.org>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.62.0908171628490.31215@hixie.dreamhostps.com>
On Mon, 17 Aug 2009, Smylers wrote:
> 
> Aria is specifically about accessibility for those with disibilities.  
> A user without any disabilities using, say, Lynx or Firefox with images 
> turned off, would not be using any technology that processes aira-* 
> attributes.  As such she would not see an alternative to the missing 
> image, and would not know the purpose of the link.
> 
> We (HTML WG) need to ensure that HTML 5 continues to cater for to users 
> with 'non-mainstream' set-ups even when ignoring all Aria-specifc 
> features.

This is quite an important point -- ARIA is intended as an accessibility 
API layer above the semantics of HTML. As such, we really need to consider 
ARIA markup to be a last resort. I don't think, even with ARIA as an 
integral part of the language, that it makes sense for us to be making 
conformance predicated on including ARIA markup. That is, I don't think 
that removing ARIA markup should ever make a page non-conforming.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
Received on Monday, 17 August 2009 16:39:39 UTC

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