Re: Technical concerns about the addition of <main> to HTML

L. David Baron wrote:

“I think it's a worthwhile goal for HTML to have enough semantics to express
what's in aria (or at the very least to express the parts of aria that have
proven to be useful based on experience), so that aria can eventually become
just a description of the underlying model that doesn't need to appear in
markup.”

 

>From the point of view of a screen reader user, ARIA landmarks are
incredibly useful. I’d even go as far as to say they’re a game changer.
Landmarks come closer than anything to emulating the experience of glancing
at part of a page to determine its purpose.

 

It used to be necessary for a screen reader to read a page from top to
bottom in linear fashion. It then became possible to navigate through a page
by different elements. The former technique was time consuming, and the
latter quicker but still unintelligent.

 

Landmarks mark the next step in this evolution. It’s possible to navigate
through a page based on its landmarks (with a shortcut key), but as the
screen reader encounters each landmark it announces the purpose of that part
of the page as well. It’s both efficient and intelligent [1].

 

Some screen readers have already begun to implement support for the HTML5
elements that map to ARIA landmarks, but main is noticeably absent from the
list.

 

Léonie.

 

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhWMou12_Vk
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhWMou12_Vk&feature=plcp> &feature=plcp