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Re: WCAG and role="presentation"

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Aug 23, 2017 8:25AM

> Let's also keep in mind that using role="presentation" is easy.

While I think we'd all agree that it is best to use role presentation -- the question is whether it is a violation of WCAG. If table markup is not used with TH, scope or other header association markup then the table is not identifying header cells and it can be programmatically determined that the table is a layout table. Since WCAG 2 was written without relying on ARIA and was written before the ARIA spec was finalized -- the supporting document seem to indicate that it's not a failure of WCAG as long as not using role presentation is accessibility supported. However we don't have specific guidance on this and others are likely to disagree.

Ideally these are the types of things that need to be clearly defined in supporting documents so we can achieve consistency with testing tools and with conformance evaluations. Questions such as this can be raised with the Accessibility Guidelines Working Group on Github (https://github.com/w3c/wcag/issues). If you feel strongly about something it might be helpful to put together a suggested failure technique -- although getting failure techniques accepted has been proven difficult.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2017 9:28 AM
To: Lovely, Brian (CONT) < <EMAIL REMOVED> >; WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] WCAG and role="presentation"

Well put Brian.
Let's also keep in mind that using role="presentation" is easy.
You add this attribute where appropriate. It does not trigger additional functionality testing(except with a screen reader) and it does not change the webpage appearance so you don't have to get designers involved.

And if you are consistently using a semantic element to achieve a certain appearance (or for other non semantic purposes), you really should take a look at the design in general (if you have that luxury) to figure out why. It may have other consequences, or break after user agent updates.



On 8/23/17, Lovely, Brian (CONT) via WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> I would call out a page for a table containing non-tabular data.
>
> The role of presentation strips an element of its semantic meaning
> (essentially converting it to the equivalent of a non-semantic
> container like a div or span). The semantic meaning of elements is an
> important part of accessibility, particularly actionable elements. Use
> of the correct semantic element provides information about the type of
> information presented, and how the element can be successfully
> interacted with. I'm not always a "slippery slope" kind of guy, but
> once you start to erode the trust in the semantic information you
> present, the user really doesn't know what to expect and must take the
> extra time and energy to determine if elements are actually what they
> are presenting themselves to be, and if those elements actually behave as expected.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On
> Behalf Of Peter Shikli
> Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2017 5:33 PM
> To: WebAIM Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: [WebAIM] WCAG and role="presentation"
>
> My question is whether it is a violation to not use
> role="presentation" on elements which are used for presentation
> purposes only, such as tables. I realize we should use it for
> decorative tables, but is it a requirement for a Level AA rating per
> WCAG Success Guideline 1.3.1 "Info and Relationships"?
>
> Understanding WCAG 2.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/
> states that when possible, information presented visually should also
> be made available programmatically. Many examples are given, but I
> would like some clarification specifically on the use of WAI-ARIA's role="presentation."
>
> Sincerely,
> Peter Shikli
> <EMAIL REMOVED>
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