RE: Proposal: ARIA-ROLE & CSS definition integration

At 1:03 AM -0400 6/9/08, Justin James wrote:
>James -
>
>>  I think you may have missed the point of my JavaScript example. It was 
>>  just one way you could insert ARIA semantics into the DOM by flagging 
>>  an HTML class or id, or for that matter, by any CSS selector. The 
>>  example was not my recommendation for how it should always be done.
>
>Ah, gotcha, thanks!
>
>>  One thing you could do is to help ensure that all of the ARIA 
>>  semantics get rolled into HTML 5.
>
>I fully support this, and I will be looking out for it. I think that ARIA is
>too important to be *not* rolled 100% into HTML. First, it eliminates many
>of my gripes with HTML as a presentation layer for application development
>(HTTP is still wholly inadequate for the task...), by finally (15 years too
>late) providing a mechanism for AT systems to "get" HTML. Secondly, it
>provides a way to get really darned close to the semantic Web ideal.

As someone reading all this from the sidelines, 
this direction of discussion seems to me to have 
gone into left field.

Can anyone briefly explain what is meant by "ARIA 
<em>semantics</em>" (my emphasis), what CSS has 
got to do with semantics (in any sense), and what 
either of these is likely to do for the semantic 
Web? Isnt CSS entirely about, well, graphic 
style? I see nothing even slightly semantic in 
the question of whether some text items should be 
rendered in large red characters (say). If this 
is semantics, then we must be talking about 
entirely different notions of "semantic Web".

What is your "semantic Web ideal" ?

Thanks in advance for any explanations/pointers.

Pat Hayes
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Received on Monday, 9 June 2008 15:16:48 UTC