Disappointing change in HTML5’s WAI-ARIA section

Steve has added the following to the top of the WAI-ARIA section of 
HTML5: [1]

]] 
  The primary audience for this section is user agent and conformance 
checker implementers. It contains incomplete guidance for authors. 
Authors are advised to make use of the following documents for guidance 
on using ARIA in HTML:
 * Using WAI-ARIA in HTML - A practical guide for developers on how to 
to add accessibility information to HTML elements using the Accessible 
Rich Internet Applications specification [ARIA]. In particular the 
Recommendations Table provides a complete reference for authors as to 
which ARIA roles, states and properties are appropriate to use on each 
HTML element.
 * WAI-ARIA 1.0 Authoring Practices - An author's guide to 
understanding and implementing Accessible Rich Internet Applications
[[

Comments:

* It feels unproductive to have a section which effectively says 
"please look somewhere else". This is dangerous for a spec to do.

* If is true that it is not for authors, then why is HTML5’s WAI-ARIA 
section included in the HTML5 Authors View version of the spec?[3]

* The logical consequence of the above addition, is that HTML5’s 
section on how to author the @alt attribute for img elements [2], gets 
a similar 'please look somewhere else' section. That is, practically 
speaking, that it gets a pointer to Steve’s document on how to author 
@alt for images.

* Comparing 'incomplete guidance for authors' in first paragraph with 
'practical guide for developers' in first list item, it makes me wonder 
whether 'authors' and 'developers' is the same thing.

* I am positive about 'Using WAI-ARIA in HTML' document. But I am not 
positive if it is used to avoid tackling problems in HTML5 proper.[4]

I send this message to this list, rather than opening bugs because, as 
I believe I have shown above, the above cited section has a little bit 
too many issue connected to itself.

[1] http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/dom.html#wai-aria

[2] 
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/embedded-content-0.html#alt

[3] http://dev.w3.org/html5/spec-author-view/wai-aria.html#wai-aria

[4] https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=20696

-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Saturday, 6 April 2013 20:30:58 UTC