ACTION-1346: Propose edit to dialog role to clarify issue that leads to bad implementation

Revision of Proposed ARIA 1.1 text after discussion at October 20, 2014 
meeting:
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dialog (role)

A dialog is a descendant window of the primary window of a web 
application. For HTML pages, the primary application window is the entire 
web document, i.e., the body element.

Dialogs are most often used to prompt the user to enter or respond to 
information. A dialog that is designed to interrupt workflow is usually 
modal (see related alertdialog).

Authors SHOULD provide a dialog label, which can be done with the 
aria-label or aria-labelledby attribute.

Authors SHOULD ensure that each active dialog has a focusable descendant 
element with focus and that focus is trapped inside the dialog. If a 
dialog is modeless, authors SHOULD ensure there is a keyboard mechanism 
for moving focus between the modeless dialog and other windows within the 
web application that contains it.

Note: In the description of this role, the term "web application" does not 
refer to the application role, which specifies specific assistive 
technology behaviors.
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In addition, add the following note to the window role:

Note: In the description of this role, the term "application" does not 
refer to the application role, which specifies specific assistive 
technology behaviors.
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For your reference: the ARIA 1.0 text is:
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dialog (role)

A dialog is an application window that is designed to interrupt the 
current processing of an application in order to prompt the user to enter 
information or require a response. See related alertdialog.

Authors SHOULD provide a dialog label. Labels may be provided with the 
aria-label or aria-labelledby attribute if other mechanisms are not 
available. Authors SHOULD ensure each active dialog has a focused 
descendant element that has keyboard focus.
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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