Re: Context of the main element

Jeremy Keith, Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:54:24 +0000:
> Leif wrote:
>> But if <main> was allowed to occur more than once, then it could not 
>> completely replace role="main": [1]
>> 
>> ]] Within any document or application, the author SHOULD mark no more 
>> than one element with the main role.[[
>> 
>> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/complete#main

> 
> But in that same document, the contentinfo landmark role has exactly 
> the same "should" rule:
> 
> "Within any document or application, the author SHOULD mark no more 
> than one element with the contentinfo role"
> 
> http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/complete#contentinfo

> 
> …and yet the HTML equivalent (footer) is not restricted to being used 
> once per document. Instead, *only* the footer element that is scoped 
> to the document body corresponds to role="contentinfo".

<footer> defaults to not having any role but "If specified, role must 
be contentinfo",[1] while <main> defaults to having a role which should 
only occur once.

Perhaps there are other possibilities, but in order to implement your 
idea, then I believe the best option would be to maintain that <main> 
defaults to main role. But that multiple <main> elements are permitted 
provided that the extra elements are specified with role that signals 
"main content of this section". 

<main role="main.role.of.this.section">.

But then ARIA needs to either offer such a relevant role, or one would 
have to propose such a role for the next update of ARIA.  Or, if there 
is no relevant ARIA role, perhaps say that <main> defaults to no role 
if there is more than one <main> element on the page. (Perhaps the spec 
already tells AT to ignore <main> when there is more than one the page?)

Don't know if this would be any useful. But it would complicate the use 
of <main> a little bit, I think.

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

-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Thursday, 31 January 2013 18:29:09 UTC