Re: Aria Syntax in SVG

Hi, ARIA fans-

Doug Schepers wrote (on 6/20/08 4:39 PM):
> 
> We also resolved at our most recent F2F [3] to make an SVG module 
> specification that incorporates the XHTML 'role' attribute, and to work 
> with the WAI ARIA folks (as well as other domain experts) to define a 
> set of roles in this module.  This module should also provide a schema 
> for the validation of SVG and ARIA.
>
> [3] http://www.w3.org/2008/05/22-svg-minutes.html#item05

At the time of the original agreement, one of the concerns raised was 
the useful validation of ARIA syntax in SVG.  Henri Sivonen has 
generously offered to write a schema to do this, and has posted a 
follow-up to the public-schemata-users list. [1]

To me, the crucial issue is not merely that it validate (that is, that 
no errors are reported when a user validates a document), but that the 
validation can provide useful information to the author.  For example, 
if an element has the @role value 'checkbox', but a state value or 
property value that is not supported for that role, such as 
'autocomplete', then the author should be informed about that 
inconsistency.

Similarly, if a role is defined for an element where that role is 
inappropriate, that should also be reported to the author; I think this 
latter validation criteria is a bigger issue with HTML, which has fairly 
strict operational semantics for many of its elements, than with SVG, 
which generally only defines geometric, structural, relational, or 
rendering semantics, but I can think of scenarios where we will define 
ARIA roles for certain SVG elements and such validation will become more 
important.

[1] 
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-schemata-users/2008May/0001.html

Regards-
-Doug Schepers
W3C Team Contact, WebApps, SVG, and CDF

Received on Friday, 20 June 2008 21:38:43 UTC