Re: From the HTML-WG about aria-hidden

Laura Carlson, Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:13:07 -0600:

> The HTML5 specification currently unambiguously states,
> 
> The hidden attribute must not be used to hide content that could
> legitimately be shown in another presentation.
> 
http://www.w3.org/TR/2011/WD-html5-20110525/editing.html#the-hidden-attribute
> 
> It is plain and simple.
> 
> The proposal changes the hidden attribute's meaning so hidden won't
> mean hidden from all.

If feel that you misrepresent ISSUE-204: The proposal that is the 
starting point of ISSUE-204, does not affect *when* @hidden sections 
are rendered to AT. The 'when' is defined by ARIA 1.0, which says that 
it is renderend when the aria-describedby annotations are presented to 
the user.  ISSUE-204 only affects *how* the aria-describedby content is 
rendered to AT: Instead of flattening links etc, ISSUE-204 seeks to 
make sure that links and other semantics will not be flattened.

> It introduces inconsistency which may be
> confusing,  error prone,  difficult to comprehend, and put into
> practice especially for novice authors.

I agree that *if* ISSUE-204 introduces problems, then they are on the 
authoring level - in their ability to understand @hidden. But, from 
another angle: Authors are already used to the fact that AT users need 
info that other users should not see.

> What would an author do if he really wanted to hide something from all
> users? @hidden and role of presentation?

role=presentation only hides elements such as <img>. That is: Void or 
empty elements. For other elements, it removes the native semantics - 
turning them into synonyms of <div> and/or <span>. So the answer - 
before and after ISSUE-204 came on the table - is: Either @hidden or 
@aria-hidden=true in combination with display:none.
-- 
leif halvard silli

Received on Thursday, 16 February 2012 01:30:38 UTC