Re: ARIA roles added to the a element should be conforming in HTML5.

Hi jonas,

the examples are not sites but YUI and  and jQuery widgets, so they are
being used on many sites.

>Wouldn't it be better for these sites to use a <button> element
>instead? Or maybe they currently "can't" because you can't style a
>button enough to give it the desired rendering.

of course it would be, but the developers have decided to use  the a
element.

a related example: wouldn't it be easier for example for the gmail
developers to use a <button> for the  "search mail" button in gmail
instead of

<DIV id=:r9 class="J-K-I J-J5-Ji ipG21e J-K-I-JW" tabIndex=0
closure_hashCode_5dymj1="112" act="" unselectable="on"><DIV class="J-J5-Ji
J-K-I-Kv-H" unselectable="on">
<DIV class="J-J5-Ji J-K-I-J6-H" unselectable="on">
<DIV class=J-K-I-KC unselectable="on">
<DIV class=J-K-I-K9-KP unselectable="on">&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV class=J-K-I-Jz unselectable="on">Search
Mail</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>

styled and scripted to look and act like a button?

I would think yes, but they obviously don't

best regards
Stevef


2009/10/21 Jonas Sicking <jonas@sicking.cc>

> On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 12:17 AM, Steven Faulkner
> <faulkner.steve@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Currently the a element is defined in the HTML5 specification as an
> element
> > that cannot have its native role overriden by ARIA roles [1]
> >
> > This is contrary to use in the wild as it has been overriden by the
> addition
> > of a number of roles in popular javascript UI libraries.
> >
> > Examples:
> > button
> > http://jqueryui.com/demos/dialog/
> >
> http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/carousel/carousel-ariaplugin_source.html
> > tab
> >
> http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/tabview/tabview-ariaplugin_clean.html
> > menutiem
> > http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/examples/menu/menuwaiaria_source.html
> >
> > It is important to understand that it is not ARIA that is making the link
> > into a button, its the developers use of javascript, event handlers and
> CSS
> > that is making it look and act like a button or tab or menutiem. The
> > addition of ARIA is merely providing the information that other users get
> by
> > default. So making the addition of an ARIA role non conforming, to an
> > element that has been designed to act and look like something other than
> its
> > native role, is not the appropriate repsonse.
> Wouldn't it be better for these sites to use a <button> element
> instead? Or maybe they currently "can't" because you can't style a
> button enough to give it the desired rendering.
>
>
> / Jonas
>



-- 
with regards

Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG Europe
Director - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium

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