RE: ACTION-1442: Draft spec text for aria-current and aria-currentfor

If false and undefined are treated the same, then the spec text should state something like the following instead:

“The aria-current attribute indicates whether the element is current (true), or not current (false). If the aria-current attribute is false or undefined, the current state of the element should not be conveyed by User Agents.”

Otherwise the implication is that aria-current=’false’ has a specific purpose that may or may not match undefined; making it more likely to be misimplemented by user agent venders who agree or disagree with the intent of the verbiage.

From: Matthew King [mailto:mattking@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2014 2:47 PM
To: Bryan Garaventa
Cc: LWatson@PacielloGroup.com; public-pfwg@w3.org
Subject: RE: ACTION-1442: Draft spec text for aria-current and aria-currentfor

Bryan wrote:
> For example, aria-current is supposed to handle all of those corner
> cases where grouped elements can either be current or not current,
> but this is deliberately vague so it can apply to any scenario where
> this is needed. As a result, you may have objects that can be
> current or not current interspersed amongst elements that are simply
> there for support like help links, or other element types, all
> within the same container.

I think we have different understandings and that the problem we are solving is much simpler. Does it really matter what else is in the container? Does it even matter what the container is?

The problem is simple ... there is very often a visual indication of what the current item is in a set. This state is different from selection, different from checked, etc. There is only a need to communicate the item that is current. There is no need to communicate what other items could be current but are not. That would be information overload.

Matt King
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member
I/T Chief Accessibility Strategist
IBM BT/CIO - Global Workforce and Web Process Enablement
Phone: (503) 578-2329, Tie line: 731-7398
mattking@us.ibm.com<mailto:mattking@us.ibm.com>



From:        Bryan Garaventa <bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com<mailto:bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com>>
To:        Matthew King/Fishkill/IBM@IBMUS,
Cc:        "LWatson@PacielloGroup.com<mailto:LWatson@PacielloGroup.com>" <LWatson@PacielloGroup.com<mailto:LWatson@PacielloGroup.com>>, "public-pfwg@w3.org<mailto:public-pfwg@w3.org>" <public-pfwg@w3.org<mailto:public-pfwg@w3.org>>
Date:        11/06/2014 01:53 PM
Subject:        RE: ACTION-1442: Draft spec text for aria-current and aria-currentfor
________________________________



I get what you are saying, but how are you supposed to know which elements are part of the same group?

For example, aria-current is supposed to handle all of those corner cases where grouped elements can either be current or not current, but this is deliberately vague so it can apply to any scenario where this is needed. As a result, you may have objects that can be current or not current interspersed amongst elements that are simply there for support like help links, or other element types, all within the same container.

So, if nothing is conveyed to indicate which elements are explicitly marked up with the aria-current attribute, how do you know which is which?



From: Matthew King [mailto:mattking@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2014 1:37 PM
To: Bryan Garaventa
Cc: LWatson@PacielloGroup.com<mailto:LWatson@PacielloGroup.com>; public-pfwg@w3.org<mailto:public-pfwg@w3.org>
Subject: RE: ACTION-1442: Draft spec text for aria-current and aria-currentfor

Bryan,

> “The aria-current attribute indicates whether the element is current (true), or not current (false).
> If the aria-current attribute is undefined, the current state of the element should not be conveyed by User Agents.”

This would imply UA would convey "not current" when it is false. I think we do not want that. I assume that is the rationale behind Leonie's wording.

Reality is that we do not even need a value. False and undefined should be treated the same. Just including aria-current with no ="value" is good enough. While this would line up with HTML5, it would be a departure from the rest of ARIA.

Matt King
IBM Senior Technical Staff Member
I/T Chief Accessibility Strategist
IBM BT/CIO - Global Workforce and Web Process Enablement
Phone: (503) 578-2329, Tie line: 731-7398
mattking@us.ibm.com<mailto:mattking@us.ibm.com>



From:        Bryan Garaventa <bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com<mailto:bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com>>
To:        "LWatson@PacielloGroup.com<mailto:LWatson@PacielloGroup.com>" <LWatson@PacielloGroup.com<mailto:LWatson@PacielloGroup.com>>, "public-pfwg@w3.org<mailto:public-pfwg@w3.org>" <public-pfwg@w3.org<mailto:public-pfwg@w3.org>>,
Date:        11/06/2014 01:12 PM
Subject:        RE: ACTION-1442: Draft spec text for aria-current and aria-currentfor
________________________________




Looks good to me, however the following is unclear:

“The aria-current attribute indicates whether the element is current (true), or not current (false). If the aria-current attribute is false, the current state of the element should not be conveyed by User Agents.”

This implies two functions for false, which seems to state that false should be conveyed as ‘not current’ as well as ignored by user agents at the same time. Since the value of false should be different from undefined, the following is clearer:

“The aria-current attribute indicates whether the element is current (true), or not current (false). If the aria-current attribute is undefined, the current state of the element should not be conveyed by User Agents.”


From: Léonie Watson [mailto:LWatson@PacielloGroup.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2014 10:36 AM
To: public-pfwg@w3.org<mailto:public-pfwg@w3.org>
Subject: ACTION-1442: Draft spec text for aria-current and aria-currentfor

Comments welcome…

1.       Aria-current attribute

Indicates the element that represents the current item with a navigation container in its ancestry.

The aria-current attribute indicates whether the element is current (true), or not current (false). If the aria-current attribute is false, the current state of the element should not be conveyed by User Agents.

For example the aria-current attribute may be used to indicate the current document in a collection or the current step in a process.

Note
The aria-current attribute is similar to the aria-selected attribute, but there are important differences. the aria-selected attribute indicates the selected state of children within certain widgets, whilst the aria-current attribute indicates the current element within the scope of a container.

Characteristics of aria-current
Used in roles: : button, link, listitem, img.
Value: true/false/undefined

Values of aria-current
true: The element is current
false: The element is not current
undefined: The element cannot be current

2.       Aria-currentfor attribute

Identifies the element that is the container for an element with aria-current.

For example the aria-currentfor attribute may be used to indicate the containing grid of a calendar widget, where the current date is indicated with aria-current.

Characteristics of aria-currentfor
Used in roles: : All elements of the base markup
Value: ID reference

--
Senior Accessibility Engineer, TPG
@LeonieWatson @PacielloGroup