Is it okay to add role="tooltip" to static elements?

Hi everyone,

Please take a look at this image (
http://www.lessfussdesign.com/blog/http://www.lessfussdesign.com/images/blog/form-screen-2009-08-10.gif
) which is taken from this blog page (
http://www.lessfussdesign.com/blog/2010/08/using-aria-describedby-for-form-help-text/
).

The image shows that there is a static description paragraph (< p >
element) below the password input field. In that case, is it okay to
add ARIA role="tooltip" to the static < p > element?

In most web designs, tooltips are often designed as "popups" which are
triggered by mouse hover. However, if I understand it correctly,
"tooltip" literally means "tip of tool" and doesn't imply that a
tooltip must be a "popup" thing. So, can I add role="tooltip" to
elements which can be considered as "tip of tool", even if they are
static elements? (Just like the example above) By doing so, I feel
they are markup'ed more meaningfully, and we also get the benefit of
having styling hooks.

I'm not sure whether adding role="tooltip" to static elements has
negative effects to assistive technologies or not. Is this idea
appropriate or inappropriate?


Kind Regards,
Ian

Received on Wednesday, 27 June 2012 11:51:02 UTC