Re: ARIA use in HTML other than for accessibility.

[trimming Cc]

Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>, 2015-05-01 10:10 +0100:
> Archived-At: <http://www.w3.org/mid/CA+ri+VkFtBFVT+gSSqZZTG_9CDHD1XX57mdQVwe9ukPHSZLPOA@mail.gmail.com>
> ...
> My understanding in the context of HTML is that ARIA is to be used to allow
> web developers to assign semantics to HTML content in order to make it
> understandable to assistive technology users.

I think that’s also the near-universal understanding that Web author-
developers have about the use of ARIA. Among other reasons, because that’s
what we’ve been teaching them for quite a few year. Any efforts to re-
define the scope of ARIA to include other purposes would seem to me to end
up having the effect of un-teaching people toward some other unproven goal.

...
> The ARIA 1.1 spec appears to align with this view:
> 
> > These semantics are designed to allow an author to properly convey user
> > interface behaviors and structural information to assistive technologies in
> > document-level markup.

...as does the HTML spec:

> To enable assistive technology products to expose a more fine-grained
> interface than is otherwise possible with HTML elements and attributes, a
> set of annotations for assistive technology products can be specified
> (the ARIA role and aria-* attributes). [ARIA]

...
> I see problems arising from the use of ARIA in HTML for purposes other than
> UI accessibility including:
> 
> * Conflict with native HTML accessibility semantics
> * Unnecessary cruft build up in the corpus of HTML documents due to its
> extended use.
> * Dilution of its relationship to accessibility APIs semantics and increase
> in complexity of an already complex vocabulary.
> 
> I would really think there is a need for this stuff to be more thoroughly
> discussed, especially in relation to ARIA use in HTML as a host language.

I strongly agree with all the above, and want to say more specifically that
no new ARIA role values should be getting specified anywhere without efforts
being made to have them widely reviewed and without ample opportunities for
others to question their utility and get (re)consideration about whether
they align with our shared understanding of the scope of ARIA—and whether
they’re solving any actual problems for real users.

  —Mike

> [1] http://w3c.github.io/aria-in-html/#first-rule-of-aria-use
> [2] http://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/master/aria/aria.html#h-abstract
> [3] https://twitter.com/rschwer/status/593758137989013504
> [4] http://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/

-- 
Michael[tm] Smith https://people.w3.org/mike