- From: Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
- Date: Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:54:58 +0000
- To: Adrian Bateman <adrianba@microsoft.com>, Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com>, Anne van Kesteren <annevk@opera.com>, "L. David Baron" <dbaron@dbaron.org>
- Cc: HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>, Sam Ruby <rubys@intertwingly.net>, Paul Cotton <Paul.Cotton@microsoft.com>, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>, HTML Accessibility Task Force <public-html-a11y@w3.org>, David Bolter <dbolter@mozilla.com>
Hi Adrian, Maciej, Anne and David (note: if there is a more approriate implementor representative this email should go to please advise) Your feedback on this would be appreciated. The title attribute as implemented (in all browsers that implement accessibility support) is mapped to the accessible name in all accessibility APIs in all browsers (that implement mapping), so in the absence of other labelling mechanisms, all HTML form controls are labelled by the title attribute content if present. The same goes for most other HTML elements. This reality is not reflected in the usage advice in the spec. There is a WCAG technique that documents how to use the title attribute to label controls: H65: Using the title attribute to identify form controls when the label element cannot be used http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H65 There is another WCAG 2.0 technique that documents how to use the title attribute to identify frame and iframe elements H64: Using the title attribute of the frame and iframe elements http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG-TECHS/H64.html The HTML5 specification does not provide any advice on how the title attribute content is used (as detailed above). I filed a bug https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=14740 the rationale provided by the HTML5 editor for its rejection: "Rationale: If browsers map it in a manner inconsistent with its meaning, that should be fixed." Do any implementors have any plans to change the current implementation in browsers to match the HTML5 specification meaning? i.e. are there any plans to stop mapping the title attribute to the accessible name in accessibility APIs? So that it does not provide a label for controls and other elements? with regards Stevef
Received on Monday, 12 December 2011 11:55:51 UTC