[html4all] ARIA (Was RE: function and impacts (was: @scope and @headers reform))

[John Foliot - WATS.ca]

Laura Carlson wrote:
>
>
> Gez wrote,
>
> > If HTML5 allows
> > aria-labelledby on table cells, I would be in favour of dropping
> the 
> > headers attribute completely, as it can't be used practically, and
> use
> > aria-labelledby for complex associations instead.
>
> This is an interesting proposal and perhaps a way forward.
>
> The question is will aria-labelledby on table cells be written into
> the html5 spec?
 
All,

Recently, I had an opportunity to talk with TV Ramen, who you may have
noticed has remained pretty much outside to all HTML 5 discussions.  We
talked at length about @alt, @longdesc, and the myriad of other gaffs
and omissions we are currently enduring.  His advice was to focus
instead on ensuring that ARIA and its implementation(s) are robust,
complete and fully featured, as despite the flavor of HTML being
authored, if @aria attributes are used, the AT user will benefit. (For
example, ensuring that appropriate @role values exist for images)
After all, we already have browser implementers supporting and
extending ARIA with each coming day.
 
In a way, it's kind of sad to ghetto-ize specific accessibility
functionality into a sub-set of HTML, but given that this appears to be
where the real gains are being made, perhaps we need to take the
pragmatic approach of advocating for the inclusion of all of ARIA's
work into HTML5 wholesale (now, or down the road when things have
settled down) and instead focus on ensuring that all of the required
functionality we see and know is needed is addressed through an ARIA
method - in other words find real solutions outside of the cabal's
machinations and seek to import "en-bloc" the entire ARIA toolkit as
part of the final official spec.
 
Thoughts?
 
JF