- From: Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com>
- Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 02:13:44 -0700
- To: Steven Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
- Cc: public-html@w3.org, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>, Sam Ruby <rubys@intertwingly.net>
On Jun 16, 2010, at 2:04 AM, Steven Faulkner wrote: > Hi Maciej, > >> Is it at all common to use an <a> element as a radio button, slider, scrollbar or progress bar? I don't believe I have ever seen any of those in the wild. > > the choice of roles is not based on common usage its based on an > interpretation of the WAI-ARIA role taxonomy. Why is interpretation of WAI-ARIA role taxonomy a relevant consideration for what roles should be allowed for <a>? The rationale for your Change Proposal does not cite "the role taxonomy says so" as an argument, rather it cites the fact that Web developers are already using <a> for some non-link purposes, and it gives specific examples. I don't see any examples there of <a> being used as a slider, scrollbar, progress bar or radio button. So it seems that aspect of the proposal details is not justified by the rationale. I can see a potential argument for <a role=button> based on the fact that <a> elements are often (mis)used as buttons, and disallowing it may lead authors to make their content less accessible instead of more semantically correct. But that reasoning does not apply to <a role=progressbar>. Since authors are not making that semantic error currently, there doesn't seem to be a practical benefit to allowing it. Regards, Maciej
Received on Wednesday, 16 June 2010 09:14:17 UTC