I support a revert. The chairs have already reached consensus on the use of
role for these elements. No formal proposal was made and even if it was no
evidence was provided to support these assertions which Ian has simply
raised again without formal proposal.
Should this be allowed I would argue that all members be allowed editor
writes to change the spec. whenever they please.
Rich
Rich Schwerdtfeger
CTO Accessibility Software Group
From: Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
To: Sam Ruby <rubys@intertwingly.net>, HTMLWG WG
<public-html@w3.org>, Paul Cotton <Paul.Cotton@microsoft.com>,
Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@apple.com>, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
Cc: Richard Schwerdtfeger/Austin/IBM@IBMUS, HTML Accessibility Task
Force <public-html-a11y@w3.org>
Date: 10/02/2011 07:27 AM
Subject: revert request for spec change
http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=6609&to=6610
Dear Chairs,
The html5 editor has made a conformance change to the a element in respect
to theARIA roles that can be used.
The conformance requirements present in the spec prior to the change
were the result of this working group decision
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2011Mar/0005.html
subsequently a bug was filed:
http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=13265#c0
this bug proffers no new data or evidence, it simply states:
"Should disallow <a> elements to be made into buttons, checkboxes, radio
buttons, tabs, or tree items, since those are all semantic abuse"
On the baseis of the above comment the editor made the change. The
rationale provided by the editor proffered no new data or evidence only
vague staments about 'hurting accessibility'
Vague unsubstantiated statements are not sufficient to override a working
group decision, Changing the conformance requirements because "Hixie said
so" is not a convincing reason as hixie himself [1] said so recently.
I therefor request that this change be reverted (
http://html5.org/tools/web-apps-tracker?from=6609&to=6610).
If the editor can bring new data to the working group then of course the
issue can be reconsidered
--
with regards
Steve Faulkner
Technical Director - TPG
www.paciellogroup.com | www.HTML5accessibility.com |
www.twitter.com/stevefaulkner
HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives -
dev.w3.org/html5/alt-techniques/
Web Accessibility Toolbar -
www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html
