On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:16:04 +0100, Aaron Leventhal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
Unfortunately a brief mention is insufficient as aria functionality
overlaps substantially with HTML functionality and so processing
requirements for aria-in-html need to be carefully considered (so we can
answer questions like "how does <div aria-role='heading'> affect the
outline algorithm"). This has not yet happened.
Okay, so I can speak to this. I developed first browser implementation
of ARIA -- the one in Firefox.
ARIA doesn't really overlap with HTML, because ARIA only reports what a
JS developer is using elements for.
So ARIA semantics should not affect behavior. Any code for dealing with
ARIA markup should be strictly in the accessibility API support code
(MSAA/IAccessible2/ATK/AT-SPI/UI Automation/Universal Access).
A div need not affect the outline algorithm, etc. any more than a div
does.
I would guess that it's the AT that would be the one to implement the
outline algorithm. So if <div role=heading> is reported the same way as
<h1> is, then <div role=heading> does affect the document outline in the
AT the same way as <h1> affects the document outline.
Otherwise, what is the AT supposed to do with the "heading" if not put it
in the list of headings? Surprise the user when he stumbles upon it and
say "Oh snap, that's a heading right there! Didn't see that one coming."?
:-)
(BTW, I would be fine with solving this particular issue by dropping
"heading" from ARIA -- I don't see what problem it is trying to solve that
<h1> doesn't.)
--
Simon Pieters
Opera Software
