Intro to ARIA Roles
Created by: grayghostvisuals
Jotting down some ideas before I place them in gist form.
- ARIA roles describe what a widget does, and makes this information available to assistive technologies. Attaching a role gives assistive technologies information about how to handle each element
- Helps define widgets, such as a slider, and define page structure http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/roles#landmark_roles, such as a navigation section. Roles can also describe a structure that organizes the content of a page For example if the thumb for a slider control is created using an img tag with appropriate alternative text, then a screen reader will likely announce the control as, "Graphic, thumb", as opposed to something more meaningful, such as "slider.
- One of the major problems with web applications is that any element can be used to make a widget. HTML elements already have pre-defined roles. The role given by the role attribute trumps the role of the native element.
- The ARIA specification maintains a list of roles http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/usage#usage_intro.
Roles are categorized as follows:
- Abstract Roles
- Widget Roles
- Document Structure Roles
- Landmark Roles