Comment on WAI-ARIA Role: "Widget" is Overloaded Term

Hi, PF WG-

I think that you should reconsider using the term "widget" in the ARIA 
specification.  It's always been a rather ambiguous and overloaded term 
[1], and the primary usage seems now to have shifted from "UI control" 
to "simple Web application" (cf. the WebApps WG's Widgets spec, and 
various widget frameworks by various Web companies).

I think that going forward, this will be a point of confusion for 
people, where the use of a different term may disambiguate what your 
particular usage is.  May I suggest using a term similar to "UI 
control", "interface control", "UI element", or "interface component" 
instead?

[1] http://www.google.com/search?q=define:Widget

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, WebApps, SVG, and CDF

Received on Friday, 8 August 2008 06:13:29 UTC