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

On Oct 21, 2009, at 12:37 AM, Jonas Sicking wrote:

> 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.

I think <button> is pretty consistently fully stylable cross-browser  
(unlike, say, <input type="button">).

  - Maciej

Received on Wednesday, 21 October 2009 08:26:01 UTC