Feedback on using <details> as a replacement of summary="..."

(Previously sent to public-html-a11y@w3.org, but that address refused my message. This message has been edited slightly for clarity.)

In reference to:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/HTML/wiki/Details_element_as_a_replacement_for_summary_attribute%2C_Feb_15%2C_2010

> 	• Allow details as a child of table or caption

Allowing <details> as a child of <caption> is fine. Allowing it as a child of <table> is not acceptable due to ungraceful degradation behavior. You can't introduce new children of <table> without ill effects in existing UAs.

Note that the "Spec Changes" part of the wiki page fails to include a change to the parsing algorithm for making it possible to use <details> as a child of <table> in the text/html serialization. (I'd be opposed to changing the parsing algorithm on this point, though.)

> 	• Replace the summary child element of details with a button.

This seems like a bad idea to me, because <button> has pre-existing behavior that isn't designed for making <button> act as a disclosure triangle and the disclosure triangle label.

P.S. What are "business reasons" for considering it unacceptable to have a visible description?

-- 
Henri Sivonen
hsivonen@iki.fi
http://hsivonen.iki.fi/

Received on Thursday, 18 February 2010 10:04:14 UTC