math content referenced by aria-labelledby not read

[nvaccessAuto]

Reported by RichCaloggero on 2015-06-23 19:13
MathML content referenced via aria-labelledby is not read when control being labeled gains focus. It is read in browse mode however.

This is also the case when html label element is used rather than aria-labelledby.

[nvaccessAuto]

Attachment math-label.html added by RichCaloggero on 2015-06-23 20:35
Description:
Simple Test Case

[nvaccessAuto]

Comment 1 by jteh on 2015-06-23 23:49
Unfortunately, labels are purely textual; note that the spec mentions "label text" and "text alternative". Math content is not textual; it contains semantics that are essential for proper reading and interaction. Even if we did just convert the math to text and include this as a textual label, this wouldn't be properly readable in braille.

I can certainly see the desire for this, but the reality is that ARIA and accessibility APIs just can't handle this at present. Also, it may cause problems in other cases; e.g. if a form field is labelled by a button, we probably don't want the form field reading "button" as part of its label.

If you really need this, you could provide a textual representation for the math yourself via aria-label on the math tag.
Changes:
Added labels: cantfix
State: closed