RE: Microsoft IE bug regarding aria-describedby and the accessibility tree Description property

Steve Faulkner wrote:

"it’s an implementation detail and authoring issue, suggest filing bugs against the ARIA implementation guide and authoring practices docs."

 

Are you saying that the spec text should be changed for both aria-labelledby and aria-describedby?

 

E.G

 

'Authors MUST include tabindex="-1" on any container referenced by aria-describedby.'

 

Just because it doesn't work in Internet Explorer?

 

 

 

>How would developers ever know this is required for one browser but not others?

"by telling them"

 

Every time a developer follows the current ARIA spec as they have already been doing for years?

 

>And why should there be a difference?

"it’s a limitation of IE's implementation."

 

I agree, which suggests that this is an IE bug and not an ARIA spec bug.

 

I don't know why it was ignored previously, but I don't see that as a reason to stop pursuing it.

 

One thing that has come up many times recently in the PF calls, is that it would be great to get ATs to use the accessibility tree and not rely so heavily on the DOM as screen readers like JAWS does currently.

 

If secret caveats like this exist, where the accessibility tree only works properly in one browser if you add something that isn't in the ARIA spec, which you would only know about if somebody told you, I don't see why AT venders would want to use the accessibility tree, because it won't be reliable across browsers.

 

 

From: Steve Faulkner [mailto:faulkner.steve@gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2014 12:50 AM
To: Bryan Garaventa
Cc: PF
Subject: Re: Microsoft IE bug regarding aria-describedby and the accessibility tree Description property

 

 

On 6 June 2014 18:44, Bryan Garaventa <bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com <mailto:bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com> > wrote:

Interesting, there is no mention of this in the spec…

http://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/master/spec/aria.html#aria-describedby 

 

its an implementation detail and authoring issue, suggest filing bugs against the ARIA implementation guide and authoring practices docs.

 

How would developers ever know this is required for one browser but not others?

 

by telling them 

 

And why should there be a difference?

 

its a limitation of IE's implementation.

 

I  first reported this back in 2010

http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-archive/2010Jul/0003.html. At the time microsoft wontfixed, then decided to fix, but constrained by the limitation I described.

 

Unfortunately the related IE bug [1] is no longer available to view. In it microsoft responded with pretty much the information I provided about the need to use tabindex=-1 etc

 

 

[1]  <https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/555280/ie-platform-preview-does-not-support-multiple-values-in-aria-labelledby-and-does-not-support-aria-describedby> https://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/555280/ie-platform-preview-does-not-support-multiple-values-in-aria-labelledby-and-does-not-support-aria-describedby 

 

 

 

 






--

Regards

SteveF

HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>