Re: Rethinking the necessities of ARIA landmark role "main" and HTML5 <main> element

The landmark roles in general aren't really necessary now that HTML has
> the relevant semantics covered.
>

Actually the reverse is true currently, while with the introduction of the
main element we have html elements that depending on context of use can
represent all of the landmarks,
browser implementations are still incomplete[4]. Using ARIA in HTML [1]
provides guidance on which elements benefit from the addition of an
explicit role

For "main" specifically, nothing is
> needed, since what users want is not to jump to a specific place in the
> document but to jump _past_ uninteresting content in the document.
>

AT and authored skip links don't actually work like this, for a skip to
main content link a referenced element is required, one which identifies
the start of the main content . As Rich Schwerdtfeger (who developed ARIA)
recently stated in relation to landmarks[2]:

Probably the most important rule for applying landmarks is to ensure *all
> content resides in a landmark region to ensure no content is orphaned*.
> This way a screen reader user can safely use landmark navigation without
> missing content. This practice will be in the next working draft release of
> the WAI-ARIA authoring practices(editor’s draft) [3].
>

and as the semantics applied to HTML elements such as nav/aside etc are
defined in terms of ARIA landmark roles, it underscores that role=main and
the <main> element are integral and necessary.


[1]
https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/aria-unofficial/raw-file/tip/index.html#recommendations-table
[2]
http://blog.paciellogroup.com/2013/02/using-wai-aria-landmarks-2013/comment-page-1/#comment-24064
[3]http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-practices/
[4]http://html5accessibility.com/

with regards

--
SteveF
HTML 5.1 <http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/>
<http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/wat-ie-about.html>


On 26 March 2013 04:32, Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch> wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Mar 2013, Ian Yang wrote:
> >
> > Could please you let us know why you think it is a mistake in ARIA that
> > the landmark role "main" even exists?
>
> The landmark roles in general aren't really necessary now that HTML has
> the relevant semantics covered. For "main" specifically, nothing is
> needed, since what users want is not to jump to a specific place in the
> document but to jump _past_ uninteresting content in the document.
>
> HTH,
> --
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
>
>