RE: @inert and @aria-inert for disambiguating modal states

Which JAWS behavior is inconsistent with the APG guidance on non-modal 
dialogs?

The guidance does not say what AT should do. But, it does say:
"Also like the modal dialog, focus via the tab and shift-tab key must be 
maintained within the dialog. However, a non-modal dialog should have a 
keyboard mechanism to return focus to the application while leaving the 
dialog open.  "

Assuming such keyboard function is provided by the application, when it is 
invoked, I assume JAWS would switch between 2 different virtual buffers: 
one containing the dialog content and one containing other application 
content. Of course, whether or not the screen reader operates in this 
manner or some other is the prerogative of the screen reader vendor. I 
would personally find such behavior very beneficial and analogous to 
comparable desktop experiences.

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



From:   Bryan Garaventa <bryan.garaventa@ssbbartgroup.com>
To:     Matthew King/Fishkill/IBM@IBMUS, 
Cc:     W3C WAI Protocols & Formats <public-pfwg@w3.org>
Date:   11/07/2014 03:18 PM
Subject:        RE: @inert and @aria-inert for disambiguating modal states



Matt, would it be worth filing a bug with FS regarding the handling of 
role=dialog in FF? This functionality goes against the guidance at
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-practices/#dialog_nonmodal
 
From: James Nurthen [mailto:james.nurthen@oracle.com] 
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2014 12:40 PM
To: public-pfwg@w3.org
Subject: Re: @inert and @aria-inert for disambiguating modal states
 
I see the need for a developer to state whether their dialogs are modal or 
not.

In the Modal case, for AT which uses a virtual buffer model, it would 
allow the AT to prevent the user from interacting with the base page using 
the virtual buffer when a modal dialog is open. If the dialog is not modal 
then AT should allow interaction with the base page.

JAWS does this today for the dialog role but IMO this is not correct 
because dialogs do not have to be modal.

I don't care how this problem is solved. aria-inert seems like one 
possible solution, but alternatively there could be an aria-modal property 
on the dialog role - or even a new role entirely for modal dialogs.

Regards,
James
On 11/6/2014 10:08 AM, Dominic Mazzoni wrote:
On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 10:01 AM, James Craig <jcraig@apple.com> wrote:
On Nov 5, 2014, at 11:17 AM, Richard Schwerdtfeger <schwer@us.ibm.com> 
wrote:

> Dominic, @inert is an indicator of state - like aria states and 
properties. It does not have to do the actual function.

This is a false statement. @inert is useless if it does not provide the 
function. By the same logic, I can see no possible way that @aria-inert 
would be useful or even possible to implement.
 
Exactly, I don't see any purpose in @aria-inert that reports to AT and 
doesn't actually do anything. What is the AT supposed to do if events fire 
on nodes that have aria-inert=true?
 
 
-- 
Regards, James 

James Nurthen | Principal Engineer, Accessibility
Phone: +1 650 506 6781 | Mobile: +1 415 987 1918 
Oracle Corporate Architecture
500 Oracle Parkway | Redwood City, CA 94065 
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