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Re: Detecting WAI ARIA capabilities in the browser

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Apr 22, 2011 2:33PM

On Fri, Apr 22, 2011 at 2:03 PM, Dylan Barrell wrote:

> http://unobfuscated.blogspot.com/2011_04_01_archive.html

Interesting. It's very intensive on the the user to identify that
their system supports ARIA. It also seems to respond to only the
Windows key commands. Control X 3 could be problematic for users with
sticky keys enabled. But, it's an interesting approach.

This all begs an interesting question. If an application can be made
fully accessible without ARIA, then why use ARIA at all? This test
would therefore serve no purpose in this situation. On the other hand,
if something can't be made accessible without ARIA, then what would
the author present if the user doesn't identify as being on an ARIA
supported system? Nothing? An inaccessible version with the ARIA
stripped out?

With proper usage of ARIA, I don't see how this self-identification of
ARIA support could be useful. You shouldn't use ARIA when non-ARIA
accessibility is possible. And when you must you ARIA, you *must* user
ARIA - and there is by definition no viable option for fall-back
content. Right?

Jared