RE: <dialog> and the

Rich Schwerdtfeger
Distinguished Engineer, SWG Accessibility Architect/Strategist
blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/schwer

w3c-wai-pf-request@w3.org wrote on 01/28/2009 01:40:19 PM:

> Ian Hickson <ian@hixie.ch>
> Sent by: w3c-wai-pf-request@w3.org
>
> 01/28/2009 01:40 PM
>
> To
>
> "Cain, Sally" <sally.cain@rnib.org.uk>
>
> cc
>
> Aaron M Leventhal/Cambridge/IBM@IBMUS, public-pfwg-comments@w3.org,
> w3c-wai-pf@w3.org, w3c-wai-pf-request@w3.org, wai-xtech@w3.org
>
> Subject
>
> RE: <dialog> and the
>
>
> On Wed, 28 Jan 2009, Cain, Sally wrote:
> >
> > I think we need to realise that many people who write html are not
> > techies and this is where this subtlety will prove even more confusing.

> > I am an advocate of simplicity and clear language and as such I think
it
> > is much more preferable to call the html5 tag exactly what it is.
>
> It represents a dialog... the problem isn't that the HTML5 element isn't
> called what it is, the problem is that the word that is used to describe
> what it is also happens to have another meaning in the tech world.
>
> The reason I suggested renaming the ARIA keyword is that "dialog" is an
> abbreviation for what the ARIA keyword means (it's a dialog box, not just

> a dialog, that it is referring to), whereas the HTML5's element name is
> not an abbreviation (one refers to dialogs as just dialogs).
>
> I think that non-techies are far less likely to be confused by this
(since
> they don't know that the computer things are called "dialog boxes") than
> techies, to be honest. If non-techies are the concern, then I would be
> even more of the opinion that the ARIA keyword is the one that should
> change.
>
Hi Ian,

The term dialog has been used in accessibility API for well over a decade
and is
a common short name for a dialog box found in GUIs. We also wanted
something shorter than
dialog_box. This was our rationale.

> However, as noted before, I'm fine with neither changing; I was only
> raising this issue because it was one of the issues on my list of
feedback
> and I was interested in working with the WAIPF on this issue to see if it

> would be possible for the WAIPF to consider changing the keyword instead.
>
We appreciate that. We now have considerable implementation support at this
time and developers
who have used it are happy with it.

All the best,
Rich

> Cheers,
> --
> Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
> http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
> Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'
>