aria-sort recommendation to have it only on ONE header

[DavidMacDonald]

This sentence on aria-sort is a bit confusing.

For each table or grid, authors should apply aria-sort to only one header at a time.

It seems its saying add the attribute when the column is sorted and remove it completely if another column is sorted. I think that is a strange request. Usually in aria we swap out values rather than remove the whole attribute when things change. Perhaps say something like this:

For each table or grid, authors should apply only one of the following at a time

• aria-sort="ascending"
• aria-sort="descending"
• aria-sort="other"

The remaining headers should either have aria-sort="none" or should not have the attribute.

[joanmarie]

At the risk of spawning a discussion (somewhat) beyond the scope of the opening report and (definitely) beyond the scope of ARIA 1.1: I'm not sure we want to restrict sorting to only one header. Spreadsheets and other interactive tables in native/desktop apps allow for multiple sort columns; why should web apps be any different?

[hartman]

Was just going to say the same thing. Ordering a table by multiple columns in sequence is not uncommon at all (and used by most spreadsheet programs). Having said that, is there any screenreader that supports keeping track of the sort state of a table that way ?

I guess you could have a live region or something pronounce the current order: "Table 1, 8 columns 200 rows, is ordered by column 2 ascending, column 3 descending" then when you order by column 6: "Table 1, 8 columns 200 rows, is ordered by column 2 ascending, column 3 descending, column 6 ascending"

[tmorehouse]

It would also be nice to have an aria-sort-order="#" attribute (indexed from 1 upwards) that would signify which columns are sorted first, then second, etc, when sorting multiple columns, or an attribute placed on the table that lists the column indexes (comma separated) of the current columns sort order.

[jnurthen]

Discussed in https://www.w3.org/2018/11/29-aria-minutes.html

[DavidMacDonald]

Reading through the minutes. Should this get a 1.3 label?

@jnurthen

[jnurthen]

It has a 1.3 Milestone already - we don't use labels for release tracking.

[zelliott]

Can W3C provide any guidance on the referenced question above? (w3c/aria-practices#1192)

[jnurthen]

#283