Re: AT support for role="application"

Hi Sri,

FWIW JAWS supports role="application" now, but I don't know of a public 
document where the behavior is described.

We'll have to follow up with them on that.

- Aaron



From:
Srinivas Annam <annams@google.com>
To:
wai-xtech@w3.org, dev-accessibility@lists.mozilla.org
Date:
07/16/2008 07:47 AM
Subject:
AT support for role="application"



Hi all,

I am trying to understand the functionality of application role and what 
the current support of AT is for the same. From the w3 description (at 
http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/#application) once role="application" is 
specified AT would set the user into non-browse mode and pass arrow and 
other key strokes straight to the the application so the application can 
support keyboard functionality.

To verify the behavior I tried the spreadsheet example (from mozilla.org) 
using FF3 and Window Eyes 6.1. While WE 6.1 recognized the application 
mode and announced "Browse Off" as soon as the page has been rendered, it 
continued to stay in browse mode until an explicit focus change occurred 
to one of the elements on the body. Is this the expected behavior of an AT 
for role="application"? The behavior certainly makes sense to me, but what 
threw me off is the fact "Browse Off" has been announced but I continued 
to be in browse mode initially. Once I understood, what it is doing I 
actually like the resulting user experience, but want to make that this is 
the expected behavior.

Also, has anyone tried a combination of application role and document role 
on the same page. Any good examples out there that I could play with? What 
about other AT, anyone know if JAWS and all has any support for this or 
planning to add?

Thanks,
Srinivas

-- 
Srinivas Annam
Software Engineer, Accessibility
Google, Inc.
Cell: 408.898.4928
Email: annams@google.com