Re: Regarding the accessible name calculation for aria-label within links?

Joseph,
<span role="listitem">What is my <a href="#" aria-label="name">nom de
plume</a>?</span>
This example is straightforward: basically only the link has an
aria-label, so one might expect, as per the specs, aria-label text
gains precedence.
But how should the following be interpreted:
<span role="listitem" aria-label="I am a listitem">What is my <a
href="#" aria-label="name">nom de plume</a>?</span>
And my take is:
The identity of the SPAN is: "I am a listitem"
So this should be exposed to the browser and ATs should render it as
one navigates to the SPAN i.e. list item.
And the content of the SPAN too should be exposed as you suggested earlier:
"What is my name?"
And browsers and ATs should render this.

Your thoughts please?
Thanks,
Sailesh

On 2/13/14, Joseph Scheuhammer <clown@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On 2014-Feb-13 7:33 AM, James Teh wrote:
>> ... The question that doesn't seem to be covered explicitly by the
>> spec as far as I can see (and I'm very happy to be informed otherwise)
>> is when aria-label(ledby) should completely override the content ...
>
> I had to go and look.  Here is what the spec says:
>
> 1.  Each role has a characteristics table that contains a "Name From:"
> entry.  The possible values are "author", "contents", or both.  For
> example, the alert role's namefrom is "author", whereas the link role
> has namefrom "contents" or "author".  A quick scan through all of the
> roles shows that many support namefrom author only, some support
> namefrom author or contents, but none have namefrom contents only.
>
> 2.  There is a statement regarding namefrom at the beginning of the
> accessible name calculation (Section 5.2.7 [1]) .  In brief, if the role
> permits namefrom author or contents, and the author has specified the
> name using, say, aria-label, then that has precedence over namefrom
> contents.
>
> 3.  Steps 1, 2A, and 2B of the text alternative calculation all deal
> with namefrom author scenarios.  Beginning with step 2C, if there is no
> author supplied name, then, "... text is collected from descendant
> content if the current element's role allows 'Name From: contents.'"
>
> 4.  If the computation is using rule 2C to concatenate content from an
> element's descendants, and one of the descendant elements has an
> aria-label attribute, then its contribution is the value of its
> aria-label attribute, not its contents.  For example:
>
> <span role="listitem">What is my <a href="#" aria-label="name">nom de
> plume</a>?</span>
>
> The name of the list item is "What is my name?".  Here's why:  The list
> item role allows namefrom contents or author, but the author has not
> supplied one.  Thus, proceed by gathering text content from the list
> item's descendants.  We get as far as "What is my" when a link child is
> encountered with an aria-label.  For the link, switch to namefrom author
> and add "name" to the result.  After the link, switch back to namefrom
> content and add the question mark.  Fini.
>
> To be complete, if the author did not add an aria-label on the link, the
> name of the list item would be "What is my nom de plume?".
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/roles#namecalculation
>
> --
> ;;;;joseph.
>
>
> 'A: After all, it isn't rocket science.'
> 'K: Right. It's merely computer science.'
>               - J. D. Klaun -
>
>

Received on Friday, 14 February 2014 14:53:43 UTC