Missing definition: current element

[WilcoFiers]

The term "current element" is used throughout the specification, without any indication of what this means. Presumably this is the active element, but if so, it's not obvious why a different term is used.

[JAWS-test]

Current Element does not mean the active element, but a reference to itself, e.g.

aria-label: Defines a string value that labels the current element.

That is, a label for the element that has the aria-label attribute, regardless of whether the element has the focus or not

[WilcoFiers]

Makes sense, but then what does it mean when it's used in 2.3.2, for example:

Otherwise, if the current element has an ID and an ancestor with the aria-activedescendant attribute present, and that ancestor is focusable, the user agent MUST set DOM focus to that ancestor.

There is no role or property spec'ed out there.

[jnurthen]

@WilcoFiers This needs clarifying. In this case it means "the element being focused" but each case is going to differ. We could do better a job here.
Thanks for the issue. Any chance you want to propose some PRs to clarify the uses of current element in the document?

[WilcoFiers]

@jnurthen Thanks for the clarification. I'm going to try to get my review done first.

[joanmarie]

@WilcoFiers since you indicated a willingness to possibly take this on, assigning to you for now. Please unassign if too busy and we'll see what we can do. Thanks!

[carmacleod]

The ARIA Working Group just discussed Missing definition: current element.

The full IRC log of that discussion

<carmacleod> github: https://github.com//issues/1152
<carmacleod> jamesn: waiting on wilco

[pkra]

Finally getting to this, I have a question.

There seem to be only two uses of "current element" in the spec.

a) in the focus management section
b) in the context of aria attribute and their values, referring to the element with the attribute.

For a), I plan to follow @jnurthen's suggestion in #1152 (comment)
For b) here's my question: is there a spec-preferred way to refer to the element holding the attribute?

• The ARIA spec often just says "the element" or "the element with role [something]"
• The HTML spec has statements such as "When specified on an element, [this attribute] indicates that ..." which seems clearer when multiple elements are involved (e.g., aria-owns, aria-activeDescendant).
• DOM has Attr.ownerElement but I think "owner" is not a good choice for the ARIA spec.

I'd love to have a clear term (given the topic of this thread) but will start with "the element with [attribute]" and possibly leverage the style of the HTML spec.

Please let me know if I missed the right term for this.

[pkra]

first draft: #1460