Hi, Brett and all.

There's some discrepancy in the specs between UIA and IAccessible2
mappings. UIA column states [1] that HTML placeholder is mapped to
accessible name and description, while IAccessible2 column says HTML
placeholder has same mapping as aria-placeholder. aria-placeholder is
exposed it in AriaProperties [2] for UIA and as object attribute for
IAccessible2, the generic name computation doesn't mention aria-placeholder
[3].

Leaving aside the specs, in case of IAccessible2 Firefox does similar
things to UIA. Iirc we agreed [4] to expose placeholder as
name/description, because it requires zero adoption efforts from AT, and
since nobody claimed they need semantics of placeholder.

If semantics loss is crucial for you, then I think we could fix it by
exposing HTML placeholder this way:
* name and description as Firefox does (fix the spec to make it clear)
* expose placeholder object attribute
* do not expose explicit-name='true' object attribute if placeholder was
used as name

aria-placeholder may be left with the current mapping. How does it sound?

[1] https://w3c.github.io/aria/html-aam/html-aam.html
[2] http://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/master/accname-aam/accname-aam.html
[3] https://w3c.github.io/aria/accname-aam/accname-aam.html
[4] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=545817


On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 11:07 AM, Brett Lewis <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hi All:
>
> I have been looking at how the HTML placeholder attribute is supported by
> IA2.
>
> According to the HTML accessibility API mappings at:
> https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aam-1.0/
>
> The placeholder in HTML should be handled just like the aria-placeholder.
>
> According to the core api accessibility mappings
> http://w3c.github.io/aria/core-aam/core-aam.html
>
> The aria-placeholder is mapped to an Ia2 object attribute of placeholder.
>
> So, it sounds like the HTML placeholder should be mapped to an IA2 object
> attribute of placeholder.
>
> Currently Firefox seems to support the placeholder as the name of the
> field if there is no other name provided by the page author (from
> https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=545817.
>
> This seems to contradict the description of aria-placeholder from
>
> the WAI-ARIA) 1.1 spec at http://rawgit.com/w3c/aria/
> master/aria/aria.html#aria-placeholder
>
> Says:
>
>
>
> “[ARIA 1.1] Defines a short hint (a word or short phrase) intended to aid
> the user with data entry when the control has no value. A hint could be a
> sample value or a brief description of the expected format.
>
>
>
> Authors should not use aria-placeholder
>
> instead of a label as their purposes are different: The label indicates
> what kind of information is expected. The placeholder text is a hint about
> the
>
> expected value. See related aria-labelledby and aria-label.
>
>
>
> Authors should present this hint to the user by displaying the hint text
> at any time the control's value is the empty string. This includes cases
> where
>
> the control first receives focus, and when users remove a
> previously-entered value.
>
>
>
> NOTE
>
>
>
> As is the case with the related HTML placeholder
>
> attribute, use of placeholder text as a replacement for a displayed label
> can reduce the accessibility and usability of the control for a range of
> users
>
> including older users and users with cognitive, mobility, fine motor skill
> or vision impairments. While the hint given by the control's label is shown
>
> at all times, the short hint given in the placeholder attribute is only
> shown before the user enters a value. Furthermore, placeholder text may be
> mistaken for a pre-filled value, and as commonly implemented the default
> color of the placeholder text provides insufficient contrast and the lack
> of a separate visible label reduces the size of the hit region available
> for setting focus on the control.”
>
>
>
>
>
> I am suggesting that we all agree to present the HTML placeholder just
> like the aria-placeholder using the IA2 object attribute of placeholder?
>
> This provides the most flexibility for screenreaders to present the
> placeholder information anyway they see fit.  Using the placeholder as the
> name is not as flexible as the screenreader cannot distinguish between the
> placeholder and the label in this case.
>
> What does everyone think?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Brett
>
>
>
>
>
> *Brett Lewis*
>
> *VFO* | Software Engineer
>
> 11800 31st Court North, St. Petersburg, FL 33716
>
> *T* 727-299-6270
>
> [email protected]
>
> www.vfo-group.com
>
>
>
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