AutoComplete: Possibility to remove "role=application" on elements

[Bukama]

Description

Primeface's autocomplete elements create a <span> tag around them, which is then labeled with role="application".

This can result in problems identifying the "true" meaning of a section, especially for screenreader users, because screenreader reading aloud the term "application" and tell the user that this section is an own "application".

In our scenario this is problematic, because we were implementing a search function and labeled the section with role="search" which should be "added to the container element that encompasses all of the elements that combined to form the search feature of the document or application" to mark this section as a search engine.

But combined with the auto applied application role this results in something like this (reduced HTML to show problem)

<div role="search">
  <label>Search</label>
  <span role="application">
    <input type="text">Search term</input>
  </span>
</div>

Due to the "override" by the application-role screenreader users can get confused whats the real purpose of the section is. Overall this resulted in a failed test step in our application and we were told to remove the role="application", which we can't as there is no confiugration on the Primeface component.

Describe the solution you would like

Enhance the API of auto-complete components to give developers the possibility to disable the automatically added role="application" attribute.

Also enhance documentaiton that this attribut is applied by default and why (I don't know if this is in minds for general accessibilty improvements, planed for Primefaces 13).

Additional context

General context

Based on German and European laws/regulations webpages have to be accessible, following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) of the W3. In short webpages have to fulfill the requirements of at least the second level ("AA") of the WCAG standard. Based on the EU regulations the German law defines that webpages of German government have to pass the "Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung - BITV 2.0" regulation, represented / verified by the "BITV 2.0 test".

So my team and I are working on making our web apps accessable, so they pass this test. The tests are executed by certified persons from another team. When analyising the results, we came to the conclusion that some violations can't be fixed by ourself only, but need changes in the Primeface's code. This issue is one of them. As my team and I couldn't find out, why some things are implemented the way they are, I created the issue as a feature request rather than a bug - even if, depending from the point of view, you could consider them as such.

Disclaimer: As guidelines say, I asked on the forum if such issues should be posted on Github and they were requested.

Issue related context

Test step 9.2.4.5 of the BITV 2.0 test, based on WCAG: Success Criterion 2.4.5: Multiple Ways requires at least two ways of navigation inside a web app. Aside the obvious main menu that we all know, a valid second path is a search engine, by which users can search for and jump to certain pages.

Further information: Breadcrumbs are not a valid navigation path, because with such the user can only navigate backwards in vertical way, but not forward (or) in horizontal way.

[melloware]

For this one does application make sense at all or should it simply be removed?

[melloware]

OK that application makes no sense there and has been there since 2014 I have no history on why. But clearly it is not correct so I removed it.