Re: PROPOSAL: Integrate ARIA attributes into the XHTML namespace

Agree. I like it.

Steven

On Tue, 20 May 2008 17:39:29 +0200, Aaron M Leventhal  
<aleventh@us.ibm.com> wrote:

> Solves a lot of problems ... +1
>
> - Aaron
>
>
>
>
>
> From:
> Richard Schwerdtfeger/Austin/IBM@IBMUS
> To:
> "T.V Raman" <raman@google.com>
> Cc:
> shane@aptest.com, w3c-html-wg@w3.org, w3c-html-wg-request@w3.org,
> wai-xtech@w3.org
> Date:
> 05/20/2008 05:06 PM
> Subject:
> Re: PROPOSAL: Integrate ARIA attributes into the XHTML namespace
>
>
>
> +1
>
> This should also appease the TAG.
>
>
> Rich Schwerdtfeger
> Distinguished Engineer, SWG Accessibility Architect/Strategist
> Chair, IBM Accessibility Architecture Review Board
> blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/schwer
> "T.V Raman" <raman@google.com>
>
>
> "T.V Raman" <raman@google.com>
> Sent by: w3c-html-wg-request@w3.org
> 05/16/2008 11:22 AM
>
>
>
> To
>
> shane@aptest.com
>
> cc
>
> w3c-html-wg@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org
>
> Subject
>
> PROPOSAL: Integrate ARIA attributes into the XHTML namespace
>
>
>
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>
> a loud 1+ on this.
>
> Shane McCarron writes:
>>
>> (resent to wai-xtech so it is public)
>>
>> XHTML 2 and PFWG members,
>>
>> I have been following with interest the debate in the TAG regarding the
>> mechanism the PFWG has proposed for addressing issues with namespaces
>> and support for the ARIA work in non-XML user agents.  I appreciate all
>> of the effort that has gone into the debate, and of course understand
>> that there are strong opinions on all sides.  In the middle of that
>> debate, I read an impassioned plea from Rich for some sensibility, which
>> I translated as "Can't we all just get along?"
>>
>> In the spirit of that, I tried to think outside the box a little bit -
>> just as we did at the f2f meeting in Venice when considering how to deal
>> with ARIA-defined values for @role.  Consequently, I propose the
> following:
>>
>>    1. Eliminate the private "aria" namespace.
>>    2. Incorporate the 'aria-*' attributes into the XHTML namespace.
>>    3. Define the attributes in an XHTML M12N-conforming module so that
>>       they can be easily incorporated into XHTML Family markup
> languages.
>>    4. Make that module "chameleon", just like XHTML Role, so that other
>>       languages can easily incorporate the attributes into their own
>>       namespace if they choose.
>>    5. Ensure that such a definition does not preclude the use in non-XML
>>       grammars such as HTML 5.
>>
>> I propose this for (at least) the following reasons:
>>
>>    1. It costs *us* nothing (there is work for the PFWG, but it costs
>>       the XHTML 2 Working Group nothing ;-).
>>    2. It promotes the ARIA techniques in the same way that incorporating
>>       Ruby or Xforms into the XHTML namespace promoted them - helping
>>       ensure they are not viewed as second class technologies.
>>    3. It basically eliminates the problems with CSS styling and access
>>       to the attributes via JavaScript, including the ability to develop
>>       style sheets and scripts that work portably regardless of whether
>>       the enclosing document is treated as HTML or XHTML - for the vast
>>       majority of use cases, anyway.
>>    4. There will only be one "name" for all the ARIA attributes.
>>
>> I fully understand that this is not a perfect solution.  I also expect
>> that there are people who will continue to object to using a dash for
>> scoping instead of the well-defined QName mechanism.  Those objections
>> are legitimate and there are long term ramifications to not using
>> namespaces when they are appropriate.  However, I think in this case
>> relegating these critical accessibility enablers to a non-XHTML
>> namespace serves no one, and therefore the use of an alternate namespace
>> for this work is inappropriate.  Unfortunately, attempting to
>> incorporate the attributes into the XHTML namespace and XHTML markup
>> languages without the aria- prefix would be impossible.  There would be
>> too many collisions with existing attribute names.
>>
>> Ignoring the technical side of the debate, we have a responsibility to
>> all members of the web community - and that community includes A LOT of
>> people who are being rapidly disenfranchised because accessibility is
>> just too damn hard in the Web 2.0 world.  We need to solve this.  And
>> solve it now.  I say we embrace the ARIA solution in the XHTML space and
>> move on!
>>
>> --
>> Shane P. McCarron                          Phone: +1 763 786-8160 x120
>> Managing Director                            Fax: +1 763 786-8180
>> ApTest Minnesota                            Inet: shane@aptest.com
>>
>>
>>
>

Received on Tuesday, 20 May 2008 15:44:35 UTC