Re: Question regarding role=directory, the usage and purpose is unclear

This role always struck me as being applicable to, maybe requested by,
 eBooks and documents, not to webpages.
I also fail to see the use case for this role in the context of a web
application (we already have role navigation, we have a banner role
(where site navigation structures usually reside), menus and trees.
In other words, we have lots of roles that can be used to designate
table of contents for a website .. not that such a thing really exists
in the web environment).



On 4/17/15, Matthew King <mattking@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> I have never understood the rationale for having this role.
> I don't see much value in it.
> Interesting that there is no such thing as a directoryitem.
> Also interesting that it has name from contents ... pretty odd for a
> structure.
>
> 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:     W3C WAI Protocols & Formats <public-pfwg@w3.org>,
> Date:   04/12/2015 06:07 PM
> Subject:        Question regarding role=directory, the usage and purpose
> is unclear
>
>
>
> Hi,
> I've been experimenting with TOC formats, and built out a somewhat complex
> one at
> http://whatsock.com/training
>
> Actually I wrote a script to do this, it would be nuts to do it by hand.
> It uses a simulated button, named Table of Contents, which includes
> aria-expanded to convey the correct state. The script iterates through all
> heading tags in a linear order from top to bottom, maps the levels, then
> builds out standard UL elements with the correct nesting order for all
> subgroupings.
>
> I also have it set aria-label on each nested UL so that it conveys the
> parent association in the naming calculation, which I like the sound of,
> because as you arrow down the list using a screen reader with a virtual
> offscreen model like JAWS, it is clear in context which nesting level you
> are entering into or out of.
>
> So I was looking at the ARIA spec, remembering that there was a directory
> role that should be applicable here too, documented at
> http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria-1.1/#directory
> But it's not clear to me how this should fit into my table of contents
> markup.
>
> For example, it implies that this should be used on the list element,
> where it states:
>
> "Superclass Role: list"
>
> If I do this though, it destroys my list within the accessibility tree.
>
> If instead I put it on the surrounding container, it doesn't appear to do
> anything.
>
> So, does anybody know what role=directory is supposed to do and how it is
> supposed to be used?
>
> Thanks,
> Bryan
>
>
>
>
>

Received on Friday, 17 April 2015 13:25:58 UTC