Re: Managed states related to aria states (was "Re: [aapi] UAI TF Meeting Agenda Tue Feb 24 2015").

Hi Alex,

On 2015-03-16 4:47 PM, Alexander Surkov wrote:
> Hi, Joseph. I'm not sure I understand clearly what managable state is 
> so could you give me some examples of unmanagable states, is it like 
> orientation state? Why do you need to keep states classified this way? 

Sorry, I'm not the expert here, but I'll do what I can.  David seems to 
know more about this than I.  David, can you help?

The correct terminology is *managed* states, not "manageable".  It's 
defined as [1]:

"Accessibility API state that is controlled by the user agent, such as 
focus and selection. These are contrasted with "unmanaged states" that 
are typically controlled by the author. Nevertheless, authors can 
override some managed states, such as aria-posinset and aria-setsize. 
Many managed states have corresponding CSS pseudo-classes, such as 
:focus, and pseudo-elements, such as ::selection, that are also updated 
by the user agent."

IMHO, I think that definition could be clearer.  However, here is what I 
think it is saying, using aria-selected as an example: Authors can 
create a custom listbox widget, and manage the selected state of its 
options through script by setting aria-selected appropriately in 
response to user gestures.  In that case, the AAPI selected state is 
ultimately controlled by the author, not by the user agent.

In contrast, it's the user agent that sets the AAPI selected state for a 
native <select>, if the author has not provided any script that change 
select attributes on the options.

Similarly for the focus state:  Authors can manage it by, say, calling 
element.focus() as appropriate.  Or, they can do nothing, in which case 
it's up to the user agent to set focus as it normally would.

Hope that helps define the distinction, but it would be useful is other 
experts chime in here.

[1] 
http://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/master/core-aam/core-aam.html#dfn-managed-state

-- 
;;;;joseph.

'Array(16).join("wat" - 1) + " Batman!"'
            - G. Bernhardt -

Received on Monday, 16 March 2015 21:08:49 UTC