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Thread: ARIA Landmarks and Headings
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From: Samwise S
Date: Sat, May 02 2009 8:20AM
Subject: ARIA Landmarks and Headings
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Hello All,
I have some confusion regarding differences in ARIA Landmarks and page
headings as they seem to serve almost the same purpose.
A website I am working on contains a header, navigation bar on left side,
main content and a footer.
Headings are currently provided for a section in top header bar, navigation
links and main content in the webpage.
If a website provides proper headings to structure content and provides
sufficient navigation, then are ARIA Landmarks required?
From: Jared Smith
Date: Sat, May 02 2009 12:20PM
Subject: Re: ARIA Landmarks and Headings
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On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 8:18 AM, Samwise S wrote:
> I have some confusion regarding differences in ARIA Landmarks and page
> headings as they seem to serve almost the same purpose.
There are several differences.
- Landmarks provide explicit access to the landmark in question. For
instance, a user can jump directly to the search box on a page with a
landmark role, but to get to a Search heading (assuming there is one),
they will have to navigate through all of the headings on the page and
look for "Search". User agents can allow navigation directly to any
landmark or navigation through all of the possible landmarks.
- The meaning of landmarks is defined in the standard, whereas
headings are specified by the page author. "Main" landmark will always
be the main content, but there's no guideline for specifying the
heading text or level that should begin main content.
- Landmark roles define the entire area in question whereas headings
just define the beginning of it (I think "landmark" isn't really
accurate as it suggests a point in the page rather than an area). With
headings, there's no real way of knowing when navigation or main
content or whatever ends.
- With landmark roles, you don't have to specify headings to begin
each section. In many ways, having a heading that says, "Hey, this is
the beginning of the navigation" isn't all that useful.
That's a few differences I can think of. Landmarks are not a
replacement for headings. You lose absolutely nothing by adding
landmark roles - they are hidden in the page - so why not add them?
Jared Smith
WebAIM
From: Chris Hoffman
Date: Sat, May 02 2009 12:35PM
Subject: Re: ARIA Landmarks and Headings
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Hello Samwise,
According to the specification, "WAI-ARIA is a way for an author to
provide proper semantics for custom widgets to make these widgets
accessible." In other words, if it isn't immediately obvious what
something on a web page is supposed to be, then you can use ARIA roles
to make its purpose clear.
That means that if the sections of your page are already marked up
with heading explaining what they are, then you don't need to include
landmark roles as well. However, the _advantages_ to adding the
landmark roles are numerous, as Jared pointed out above. I also expect
that we will see more and more assistive technology (and other
technology, like search engines) recognize and make use of landmark
roles as time goes on, something that is more difficult to do with
arbitrary headings.
-- Chris
On Sat, May 2, 2009 at 10:18 AM, Samwise S < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hello All,
> I have some confusion regarding differences in ARIA Landmarks and page
> headings as they seem to serve almost the same purpose.
> A website I am working on contains a header, navigation bar on left side,
> main content and a footer.
> Headings are currently provided for a section in top header bar, navigation
> links and main content in the webpage.
>
> If a website provides proper headings to structure content and provides
> sufficient navigation, then are ARIA Landmarks required?
>