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Thread: ARIA landmark roles
Number of posts in this thread: 4 (In chronological order)
From: Rick Hill
Date: Wed, Feb 29 2012 4:39PM
Subject: ARIA landmark roles
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I implemented basic Aria landmark roles in our CMS (banner, navigation, main, contentinfo). Of course, since all our templates are using XHTML, these elements don't validate. So:
I can deal with the verbal abuse of these element not validating as long as I can explain they make the site more accessible and that they don't validate because the validators aren't yet Araia aware for XHTML. So, is this OK? If I took them out, the pages would be squeaky clean. I'm trying to ignore the nagging urge to be validator compliant by taking these out.
I'm not keen on using Javascript to insert these since this seems like just a way to get around the validator.
So, what's the current take on this? Leave them and tell folks who ask that we know what we're doing and its for the best or pull them out and stay valid until the validators catch up or …?
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Rick Hill, Web CMS Administrator
University Communications, UC Davis
From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Thu, Mar 01 2012 1:21PM
Subject: Re: ARIA landmark roles
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Rick,
You have to put users ahead of code perfectionists. Use WAI-ARIA if it helps your users, and just explain to people that their validator is out of date. The validators will catch up eventually!
sb
Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.mass.gov/itd
From: Steve Faulkner
Date: Thu, Mar 01 2012 1:57PM
Subject: Re: ARIA landmark roles
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Hi Rick,
>So, what's the current take on this? Leave them and tell folks who ask
that we know what we're doing and its for the best or pull them out and
stay valid until the >validators catch up or …?
best is to leave them in as Sarah said.
the fact they don't validate means nothing apart from the validator throws
errors. things will either work on not work in the browser regardless of
the doctype you use.
>I can explain they make the site more accessible and that they don't
validate because the validators aren't yet Araia aware for XHTML.
they
this info may be useful: http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/appendices#xhtml_dtd
validators will probably not be updated to allow ARIA support on XHTML and
definitely not for earlier versions of HTML even though they can be used
without any ill effect. Browsers do not care what the doctype is as far as
processing of ARIA.
if possible move to using the HTML5 doctype:
<!DOCTYPE html>
this will solve your ARIA problems. (note: the W3C validator has not yet
fully implemented the ARIA rule set)
regards
stevef
On 29 February 2012 15:41, Rick Hill < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> I implemented basic Aria landmark roles in our CMS (banner, navigation,
> main, contentinfo). Of course, since all our templates are using XHTML,
> these elements don't validate. So:
>
> I can deal with the verbal abuse of these element not validating as long
> as I can explain they make the site more accessible and that they don't
> validate because the validators aren't yet Araia aware for XHTML. So, is
> this OK? If I took them out, the pages would be squeaky clean. I'm trying
> to ignore the nagging urge to be validator compliant by taking these out.
>
> I'm not keen on using Javascript to insert these since this seems like
> just a way to get around the validator.
>
> So, what's the current take on this? Leave them and tell folks who ask
> that we know what we're doing and its for the best or pull them out and
> stay valid until the validators catch up or …?
> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
> Rick Hill, Web CMS Administrator
> University Communications, UC Davis
>
>
>
From: Calvin Huang
Date: Fri, Mar 02 2012 12:24PM
Subject: Re: ARIA landmark roles
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Rick,
What validator are you using? The W3C HTML5 validator validates XHTML5.
This allows you to maintain XHTML templates and still use HTML5 features
such as WIA-ARIA.
There's no reason why you can't follow web standards and still use
accessibility features. Frankly, it's these standards that enable
accessibility features as WIA-ARIA. And there's also a difference between a
broken validator and a document that doesn't validate. You should never
knowingly code to a broken validator. Validators are tools to help you find
errors in your code, not to place arbitrary restrictions on your own code
via shortcomings in the validator's implementation of a standard.
So if you're using a validator that hasn't implemented WIA-ARIA, and those
are the only validation errors it's turning up, then you should consider
your document as validating.
--
Calvin Huang
Digital Media Consultant
Resilien7, Inc.
Phone: 909.660.3442
Web: www.resilien7.com
*Viam inveniam aut faciam*