RE: Response to your comments on Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0

Thank you for the clarifications.

-----Original Message-----
From: Janina Sajka [mailto:janina@a11y.org] 
Sent: June 17, 2010 2:28 PM
To: Ali Ghassemi
Cc: PFWG Public Comments
Subject: Response to your comments on Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0


Dear Ali Ghassemi:

Thank you for your comments on the 15 December 2009 Working Draft of
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0
(http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-wai-aria-20091215/). The Protocols and
Formats Working Group has reviewed all comments received on the draft. We
would like to know whether we have understood your comments correctly and
whether you are satisfied with our resolutions.

Please review our resolutions for the following comments, and reply to us
by 2 July 2010 to say whether you accept them or to discuss additional
concerns you have with our response. If we do not hear from you by that
date, we will mark your comment as "no response" and close it. If you need
more time to consider your acknowledgement, please let us know. You can
respond in the following ways:

* If you have a W3C account, we request that you respond online at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/comments/acknowledge?document_version_id=6;

* Else, by email to public-pfwg-comments@w3.org (be sure to reference our
comment ID so we can track your response). Note that this list is publicly
archived.

Please see below for the text of comments that you submitted and our
resolutions to your comments. Each comment includes a link to the archived
copy of your original comment on
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pfwg-comments/, and may also
include links to the relevant changes in the Accessible Rich Internet
Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 editors' draft at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/20100616/.

Note that if you still strongly disagree with our resolution on an issue,
you have the opportunity to file a formal objection (according to 3.3.2 of
the W3C Process, at
http://www.w3.org/2005/10/Process-20051014/policies.html#WGArchiveMinorityViews)
to public-pfwg-comments@w3.org. Formal objections will be reviewed during
the candidate recommendation transition meeting with the W3C Director,
unless we can come to agreement with you on a resolution in advance of the
meeting.

Thank you for your time reviewing and sending comments. Though we cannot
always do exactly what each commenter requests, all of the comments are
valuable to the development of Accessible Rich Internet Applications
(WAI-ARIA) 1.0.

Regards,

Janina Sajka, PFWG Chair
Michael Cooper, PFWG Staff Contact


Comment 318: Role named "ListView" or "DataList"
Date: 2010-02-01
Archived at: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pfwg-comments/2010JanMar/0041.html
Relates to: Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 - list (role) <http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/WD-wai-aria-20091215/#list>
Status: Proposal not accepted

-------------
Your comment:
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I would like to submit some comments regarding the ARIA WAI-ARIA 1.0. These
comments apply to the W3C Working Draft of December 15, 2009 (
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/ ) The main focus of my comments concern ARIA
support for List and ListItem roles.

Concern:

Lack of adequate support for widgets like DataList (ListView) in ARIA.
These types of widgets present complex data within list items in a similar
way that a Grid does however they are actually Lists and not a Table. These
types of widgets are becoming a popular way of presenting data other than a
Grid and they need to support states and properties such as
single-selection, multi-selection, expanded, selected and levels to support
hierarchy. Examples of such widgets include:

1-      (complex data presentation, no selection, no hierarchy ): Items
returned by searching for an image in a search engine. Each result is a
ListItem with a primary text as the name of the image and includes more
information about the image ( size, date, type) within the same ListItem
and also has some actions ( link to find similar images, etc..) also part
of the item or the entire item could be a link and when activated user is
taken to another screen with more information about the item

2-      (complex data presentation, with selection): Similar to 1 however
one (or more items ) can be "selected". Examples of these widgets could be
a list showing pictures of your friends ( each with additional information
about the friend and possibly actions like "go to profile", "add to
favourites, etc..) where you "select" one or more of your friends to send
an invite for example. Selection could be single or multiple. Also each
item needs to have the "selected" state in case the widget is loaded with
your previous selections or default selected items.

3-      ( complex data presentation with hierarchy and possibly
selection). Similar to 1 or 2 but lists are nested to present hierarchy and
parent items can be expanded or collapsed. The ARIA Tree widget works in a
similar way but will not suffice when the Tree nodes present complex data (
with actions, additional information, etc..). Examples of such interfaces
could be the example given in 1 but where items are grouped into categories
which can be collapsed or expanded.

These types of widgets should normally be created using HTML's "UL" and
"LI" however HTML  UL and LI lack the following states: 1-
Expanded,Collapsed state, Selected state, multi-selectable or
single-selectable properties and AT's normally do not announce levels for
nested UL/LIs

ARIA's List and ListItem seem to be meant for simple non-interacting lists
and they do not support selection state properties; also support for
presentation of complex data lacks in ListItem role. ARIA's Combobox which
inherits from list does support selection but it's still meant for simple
data presentation and does not fit the widgets like DataList ( ListView )

As of now the only way to display complex data is through a "Grid" which
is not ideal for many cases. Therefore I suggest adding a new Role named
"ListView" or "DataList" for these kinds of widgets with support for states
and properties mentioned above.

--------------------------------
Response from the Working Group:
--------------------------------
The examples you've given can be addressed by using the following roles:
list [1], listbox [2], and treegrid [3]. The 'list' role is a static list
that can contain interactive items such as the links or buttons you've
mentioned. The 'listbox' role is an interactive list that can use both
aria-selected [4] and aria-multiselectable [5]. The 'treegrid' role is
specifically intended for the complex hierarchical data you've mentioned.
Also see aria-expanded [6].

[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/roles#list
[2] http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/roles#listbox
[3] http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/roles#treegrid
[4] http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/states_and_properties#aria-selected
[5]
http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/states_and_properties#aria-multiselectable
[6] http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/states_and_properties#aria-expanded

Received on Wednesday, 21 July 2010 22:28:24 UTC