Re: Several questions about ARIA status

Hi Matt--

That's helpful info. It sounds like developers will have to be careful 
to produce backward compatible code for awhile. I've seen a lot of 
references to graceful degradation, but haven't found a really good 
resource. Do you (or anyone else on the list) have a suggestion?

Thanks again,

Mike

Matt May wrote:
> On Nov 11, 2009, at 9:47 AM, Michael S Elledge wrote:
>   
>> 1. There are a number of roles that don't map yet to MSAA. What will
>> happen to them? Will MSAA have to create new roles for them?
>>     
>
> MSAA hasn't been updated in ages, and as far as I know, never will be. Newer interfaces (User Interface Automation, IAccessible2, AT-SPI, OS X Accessibility API) are capable of supporting ARIA roles, and each ARIA-supporting browser is using one of those.
>
>   
>> 2. Will screen readers continue to use the MSAA API for awhile or will
>> they switch over to the new Microsoft accessibility API? Will it be
>> backward compatible?
>>     
>
> It'll be a long time before any screen reader abandons MSAA outright. 99% of the software in the market supports MSAA if it supports anything. But realistically, to do most modern software development, software vendors are going to need to use a newer API, and every screen reader vendor I know of is working on supporting UIA and/or IA2 on Windows, and the platform native APIs on Mac and Linux (and iPhone, and Blackberry, and...)
>
> There's a compatibility layer between UIA and MSAA, but as far as ARIA is concerned, I don't believe any web app using ARIA would produce the results you want in MSAA-only screen readers.
>
>   
>> 3. Have the screen reader vendors and browser developers put out
>> roadmaps for their adoption of the ARIA roles? I've seen the Paciello
>> Group list of current support, which is very helpful, but I wonder
>> what's to come.
>>     
>
> Heh. If you find any published roadmaps, let me know. ;)
>
> -
> m
>
>

Received on Wednesday, 11 November 2009 18:09:59 UTC