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Re: Encouraging wider use of semantic HTML

for

From: Wolfgang Berndorfer
Date: Oct 10, 2018 11:09AM

Not only HTML elements, also attributes make searching the code easier:
Compare a search for “required” with a search for “*” as indicator for
required form fields.

I often use aria-label to understand the meaning of my own div, article or
nav again. Why hide the meaning in comments? And screen reader users benefit
of the clarifying labels. Just don’t get too verbose and redundant!

Wolfgang

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] Im Auftrag
von Jeff Gutsell
Gesendet: Dienstag, 09. Oktober 2018 21:27
An: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Betreff: [WebAIM] Encouraging wider use of semantic HTML

I want to share an interesting conversation that I had last week with a Web
developer. I mentioned to him that I was using semantic elements in my
pages. He responded that he thought this is a lot of trouble for very
little gain, which was the response I had expected.

I told him that these are huge aids to screen reader users, of course. But I
also said I think there are selfish reasons a developer should use them.
They make code a lot easier to read in large, complex projects. They can be
a big boost in searching through code when you don't know exactly what you
are looking for. For example, searching for "<nav" " is easier, sometimes,
than recalling an ID to search for. Searching for "</article" can be an
easy way to jump to the end of some content.

I think it can be easier to read and decipher the code by another developer
when I am it has semantic elements that offer more standard meanings than
obscurely named IDs and classes.



This guy was quite interested in my explanation, and I think he might just
start using the elements.

Has anyone else had any experience like this?



____________________

Jeff

iPhone: (513) 235-7460

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