Re: Making ARIA and native HTML play better together

1. I like the label element idea.

2. For the specific case of adding focusability, one concern is that
there's no way to revert back to not being focusable at all. Adding
tabIndex=-1 would leave the element as focusable but not part of the tab
order. Also, this isn't backwards compatible. This would change the
semantics and has the potential to break sites.

3. For changing behavior based on the role, one disadvantage I can see is
that it potentially makes ARIA more "dangerous" for web developers. I've
often helped developers make existing sites accessible. It's very
reassuring that any changes to ARIA attributes won't affect the look and
feel of the site and won't require testing again in every browser - only
accessibility needs to be tested again, not everything else. This change
also isn't backwards compatible. This would change the semantics and has
the potential to break sites.

On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 10:46 PM, Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Forwarding to PF as this is obviously something for PF to discuss,
> Please consider repsonding to the HTML thread
> https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2015May/0038.html
> as current public pf mailing list settings does not allow people outside
> of PF to partake in discussion.
> --
>
> Regards
>
> SteveF
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Steve Faulkner <faulkner.steve@gmail.com>
> Date: 7 May 2015 at 06:42
> Subject: Making ARIA and native HTML play better together
> To: HTMLWG WG <public-html@w3.org>
> Cc: Chaals from Yandex <chaals@yandex-team.ru>, Léonie Watson <
> lwatson@paciellogroup.com>, Richard Schwerdtfeger <schwer@us.ibm.com>,
> Alice Boxhall <aboxhall@google.com>
>
>
> On another thread recent thread, leonie and chaals [3] talked about adding
> behaviours to ARIA. Here are a few ideas:
>
> 1. When a role is used that matches the default implicit semantics of
> labelable HTML elements [1] use of the label element will result in the
> same behaviour as the native element and a <label>.
> Example:
>
> <span role="checkbox" id="customcheck"></span> <label for="customcheck">i
> like this idea</label>
>
> User able to click on label to check/uncheck
>
> 2. roles that match the default implicit semantics of interactive elements
> are focusable (without need to explicitly set tabindex)
>
> Example:
> <div role="button">press me</div>
>
> will be included in the focus order.
>
> 3. roles that match the default implicit semantics of interactive elements
> [2] inherit the interaction behaviour of the native elements
> example:
>
> <div role=button>press me</div>
> can be activated the same way a html <button> element can be:.
> via space, enter ,click , touch or whatever.
>
> Why? reduce manual labour of web devs. provide more consistent cross
> browser behaviours for custom UI. Make custom UI more robust out of the box.
>
> Review at your leisure, respond at will.
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html51/semantics.html#category-label
> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/html51/dom.html#interactive-content-2
> [3]
> https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2015May/thread.html#msg0
> --
>
> Regards
>
> SteveF
> HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>
>
>