Re: popups to provide more information

Hi Becky,

> One issue that comes up is should this be implemented as a link or a
> button.  The yahoo example implements this as a link. I would surmise that
> is done so the link will still work if scripting is not available.  But
> the link also has a visual indicator next to it of a small double down
> arrow, I assume to indicate that it opens a popup.   My first question is
> should this be given a role of link or button?   Using button gives the
> opportunity to also include the haspopup property.

I think in this case, a link would be the correct choice. I think
buttons should be reserved for explicit commands, such as "Sort",
"Search", "Filter", etc, and that links are the correct choice when
fetching a resource. Web applications tend to blur this distinction,
so although clicking on a link in this example executes the command to
gather the collection of related articles, as far as the visitor is
concerned, it's fetching a resource (the collection of articles). I
favour using a role of link, and allowing the haspopup property on
anchor elements.

Best regards,

Gez

On 22/02/07, Becky Gibson <Becky_Gibson@notesdev.ibm.com> wrote:
>
> I'm going to borrow an example from Yahoo to discuss the appropriate roles
> and behavior to use for popups.   Some yahoo pages have a link that will
> use Ajax to make a search request for more information and display the
> resulting links in a popup on the page.  Find and click on the Iran and
> Iraq links in this page:
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070215/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_070215121462.
> A popup is displayed that contains more information. Focus is not put into
> the popup but with focus on the link that invokes the popup you can tab
> into the bottom of the popup by pressing shift-tab.  The popup contains
> help and close links at the top of the popup as well as links to more
> information and some structural links.
>
> This is probably a good example for ARIA live regions but since support
> for those will not be available until Firefox 3 I would like to consider
> implementations that can be used in Firefox today.
>
> One issue that comes up is should this be implemented as a link or a
> button.  The yahoo example implements this as a link. I would surmise that
> is done so the link will still work if scripting is not available.  But
> the link also has a visual indicator next to it of a small double down
> arrow, I assume to indicate that it opens a popup.   My first question is
> should this be given a role of link or button?   Using button gives the
> opportunity to also include the haspopup property.  Currently haspopup is
> only available on buttons and menus.  I think we should encourage ARIA to
> allow the haspopup property on any element.
>
> My other proposed behavior for this type of more information popup is:
> 1) the popup should get the role of dialog
> 2) focus should be placed into the popup when it is opened
> 3) the popup should be made modal via scripting - focus can not leave the
> dialog except by clicking another link or closing it
> 4) the popup can be closed by pressing escape or via a close button
>
> thoughts?
>
> Becky Gibson
> Web Accessibility Architect
>
> IBM Emerging Internet Technologies
> 5 Technology Park Drive
> Westford, MA 01886
> Voice: 978 399-6101; t/l 333-6101
> Email: gibsonb@us.ibm.com
>
>
>
>


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Received on Thursday, 22 February 2007 23:46:20 UTC