WAI-ARIA 1.1: role= None and role=presentation

[michael-n-cooper]

Filed at https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pfwg-comments/2015JulSep/0004.html by Sailesh Panchang spanchang02@yahoo.com

I suggest two alternatives with my preference for the first:
i. If the perception is that developers do not understand use of role=presentation, then the solution is to clarify its usage in the specs / education material. Makers of user agents / AT should not be required to make a change if they already support role=presentation.
ii. Sure role=none makes better sense than role=presentation from a wording / semantic perspective.
Instead of retaining role=presentation, consider deprecating role=presentation.
Deprecating it will give a clear signal to makers of user agents / AT and in the interim, validators can flag "warning" for role=presentation.
Defining two roles with identical functionality will make it difficult for makers of user agent / AT. Some will support it sooner or later or not at all. They may not regard supporting role=none as critical if they already support role=presentation.

Developers will need to cope with this problem by setting role=presentation and role=none to deal with user agent variations.

Thanks,
Sailesh Panchang

[asurkov]

ARIA doesn't need two roles for same thing, role="presentation" can go away.

On Thu, Aug 6, 2015 at 11:13 AM, michael-n-cooper notifications@github.com
wrote:

Filed at
https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-pfwg-comments/2015JulSep/0004.html
by Sailesh Panchang spanchang02@yahoo.com

I suggest two alternatives with my preference for the first:
i. If the perception is that developers do not understand use of
role=presentation, then the solution is to clarify its usage in the specs /
education material. Makers of user agents / AT should not be required to
make a change if they already support role=presentation.
ii. Sure role=none makes better sense than role=presentation from a
wording / semantic perspective.
Instead of retaining role=presentation, consider deprecating
role=presentation.
Deprecating it will give a clear signal to makers of user agents / AT and
in the interim, validators can flag "warning" for role=presentation.
Defining two roles with identical functionality will make it difficult for
makers of user agent / AT. Some will support it sooner or later or not at
all. They may not regard supporting role=none as critical if they already
support role=presentation.

Developers will need to cope with this problem by setting
role=presentation and role=none to deal with user agent variations.

Thanks,
Sailesh Panchang

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#80.

[ZoeBijl]

My preference goes to option number two, but I can see that this involves more work for all parties.

[michael-n-cooper]

Moving to ARIA 2.0 as we don't expect to address deprecation of presentation until then.

[pkra]

Related: #1863

[pkra]

As per editors meeting, closing this as completed.