Flesh out role=note

[brennanyoung]

I'm finding the spec for the "note" role quite vague and thin on detail. I think I need to use this role quite a bit, but I am simply not certain.

The preamble currently consists of a single line of text, which could mean many or few things, depending on interpretation.

"A section whose content is parenthetic or ancillary to the main content of the resource."

I'm particularly bothered by the use of the word "main" here. Does this mean role=main? Does "resource" mean the note itself? The page?

I have put in the hours with Funk and Lewis, so "parenthetic or ancillary" don't have me reaching for a dictionary, however it strikes me that "parenthetic or ancillary" is not exactly "plain language". Can we find replacements for these that doesn't sound like jargon, or perhaps offer some definitions?

That's the copy mentioned. Now for the actual spec.

The following semantic cases may or may not call for a "note", but the spec leaves plenty of room for doubt.

• An note in (part of) the page that is not the main content (e.g. contentinfo or navigation)
• An annotation of a specific element or part
• A comment by an editor about a particular chunk of copy
• A notification
• A note with a close button

If "note" is the wrong thing for annotations. Do we need another role, or is there already a better candidate today?

Also, for authoring practices:

• How do notes best fit into read order?
• If annotations are notes, should the note come before/after the element they annotate?
• Is there a class of notes that might be live regions by default? (e.g. notifications).
• Would it be useful to include an example of an annotation using (say) aria-describedby to link the annotation to the annotated.
• What other attribute might reliably connect an annotation to something?

[jnurthen]

any interest in creating a PR for this @brennanyoung ?

[brennanyoung]

Yes, I can do that. I assume that any/all of the semantic cases I mentioned could be 'notes'.

I'm thinking that some examples in Aria Practices might be the best way to handle this, but a brief list of example cases would be useful for guiding authors and UA/AT vendors.

I'd also like to get @aleventhal 's take on this, since he has put so much work into the aria-annotations spec, which seems to cover similar ground. A synthesis of the two would be ideal, if possible.

[brennanyoung]

Unless there's a compellingly more appropriate aria attribute, I suggest that we explicitly recommend aria-details as the mechanism for associating an element with a note, since this matches the proposal in the aria-annotations spec.

AT/UA vendors might use such associations to provide useful kinds of interaction (e.g. to move focus from element to note).

[aleventhal]

It may be slightly more nuanced. What do people think of this:

• Use aria-details if the note is structured and there is a reason for the user to navigate to it and visit it.
• Use aria-describedby if it's enough to represent the note as flat text

[scottaohara]

i think those are good suggestions, aaron. i think they're in line with other comments i left on the pr