Icon fonts - semantic elements

Was drafting the email to html editor about where to file a but about
specifying the semantic of sprites or icon-fonts so they can be
programmatically determined.
"role" popped into my head.
How is using <i>some icon-font stuff</i> not a failure of
*4.1.2 Name, Role, Value:* For all user interface components
<https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#user-interface-componentdef> (including but
not limited to: form elements, links and components generated by scripts),
the name <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#namedef> and role
<https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#roledef> can be programmatically determined
<https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#programmaticallydetermineddef>; states,
properties, and values that can be set by the user can be programmatically
set <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#programmaticallysetdef>; and
notification of changes to these items is available to user agents
<https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#useragentdef>, including assistive
technologies <https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#atdef>. (Level A)

the icon-font is text but its role is an image shouldn't this fail 4.1.2?


-- 
Jim Allan, Accessibility Coordinator
Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired
1100 W. 45th St., Austin, Texas 78756
voice 512.206.9315    fax: 512.206.9264  http://www.tsbvi.edu/
"We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us." McLuhan, 1964