Re: <header> / <footer> & ARIA (was: Re: Proposal: <content> element)

On Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:55:40 +0200, Steven Faulkner  
<faulkner.steve@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi ann,

It's Anne.


> firstly sorry to answer a question with a question, but where is the
> rationale for allowing multiple headers and footers in a page?

 From looking at HTML5 I find this for <header>: "The header element can  
also be used to wrap a section's table of contents, a search form, or any  
relevant logos." <footer> includes an example containing multiple <footer>  
elements.


> I have seen the data, from google etc, but there appears to be no data on
> authors using header and footer constructs in the way described in the  
> spec.

I have certainly seen the <footer> construct in the wild. E.g. on

   http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html/2009Aug/1293.html

Not sure where the <header> pattern can be found.


> landmarks are navigational regions http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/#region
>
> banner is defined here http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/#banner
> contentinfo is defined here http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria/#contentinfo
>
> there is more detail here about structuring web pages using landmarks :
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/aria-practices/#kbd_layout

But these are definitions right, not why it was done this way?


> I am not saying that header/footer as specced should not be supported by  
> AT but if they appear multiple times in a document they should not be
> considered landmarks and should be supported in a different way to
> landmarks.

I'm just trying to understand the rationale for why ARIA put the  
restrictions the way it did, so that we can put them on the equivalent  
HTML5 elements as well.


-- 
Anne van Kesteren
http://annevankesteren.nl/

Received on Friday, 28 August 2009 10:07:07 UTC