RE: Do text nodes, e.g. paragraphs have an "Accessible Name"

Hi,

No, paragraphs, divs, and spans do not receive accessible names. Many static elements that have implicit roles do though, such as a heading. Typically this happens by itself in the background for such things like headings since they receive ‘name from content’.

 

If unclear, you can use this page to test it.

https://whatsock.github.io/w3c-alternative-text-computation/Editable%20Live%20Input%20AccName%20Test.html

 

E.G. This results in no accessible name.

 

<p id="test" aria-label="Something" > Content </p>

 

However this does result in the accessible name: “Something”

 

<p role="heading" id="test" aria-label="Something" > Content </p>

 

Note this can be dangerous though, because now the content is inaccessible.

 

Please be very careful when applying aria-label and aria-labelledby to elements. It’s always good to test them first to be sure.

 

All the best,

Bryan

 

On Fri, Oct 25, 2024 at 8:37 PM Taliesin Smith <talilief@gmail.com <mailto:talilief@gmail.com> > wrote:

Dear Interest Group Members,

 

I have always thought of an "accessible name" as required content for an interactive thing like a button or a checkbox or slider, etc.

 

Do text elements like paragraphs, headings, list items have accessible names, that is if there is no added aria-label attribute.

 

Developers on our team are abstracting / simplifying our current API that builds accessibility into our interactive simulations. The plan is to make the API very simple, like everything gets an accessible name. This seemed a little odd to me, as I have never thought of a paragraph as having an accessible name.

 

Do text nodes have accessible names by default?

 

Taliesin

 

 

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Taliesin L. Smith
talilief@gmail.com <mailto:talilief@gmail.com>  

taliesin.smith@colorado.edu <mailto:taliesin.smith@colorado.edu>  

Inclusive Design Research Specialist
PhET Interactive Simulations
http://phet.colorado.edu/
Department of Physics
University of Colorado, Boulder