WAI-ARIA 1.0 received the official status recommended by W3C: what to expect in the future and where to run now?
At the end of March 2014, the World Wide Web Consortium approved the WAI-ARIA 1.0 standard (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessibility of High-Tech Internet Applications)). This is a set of techniques and methods that make complex dynamic pages and web applications accessible to users with disabilities. The fact is that a number of new dynamic web technologies, and simply the use of custom interface elements, for example, form elements or stylized div headings instead of standard H1-H6, can cause problems for some users, mainly for people with visual impairments and motility.
The development of WAI-ARIA began in 2008, and initial support for this technology appeared in browsers such as, for example, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.x, or Opera 9.5. True, due to the constant development of the standard, as well as its lack of official status, support for ARIA designs varies greatly from browser to browser. So, according to the latest research, Internet Explorer supports about 37% of all features, Firefox - 85%, and Chrome (right there and Opera) - 47%. In addition, various support software, in particular, screen access programs that blind users use in their work, also support WAI-ARIA to varying degrees and with different characteristics.
Thus, at the current stage of development of this technology, its full implementation in large projects is rather difficult to implement without involving serious expertise, because often the process of ensuring the accessibility of interfaces goes beyond the standard, moving into the field of adaptation to the specifics of browsers and assistive technologies, and sometimes frankly under their flaws. In addition, the most popular browsers among the target users of users are Firefox and Internet Explorer, which, as mentioned above, differ very seriously in the level of support for the standard, which adds a headache to the developer of interfaces.
With the approval of WAI-ARIA as the recommended standard, it can be expected that browser and auxiliary software developers will finally be able to focus on more serious support of the opportunities offered to them, since the technology has become outdated and has ceased to change constantly.
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As for regular web developers, they should start their acquaintance with WAI-ARIA with a general overview and a note on the W3C blog , and then go directly to the standard itself. Basic things on additional semantic layout for screen access programs, such as assigning basic roles and state of elements, are already widely supported and do not involve super-deep immersion in the topic, therefore, compliance with WAI-ARIA at this level does not require serious efforts, while it solves the most acute problems availability. It is also useful to use navigation areas, that is, semantic highlighting of key areas of a page, such as a header (role = "banner"), navigation bar (role = "navigation"), main area (role = "main"), basement (role = "contentinfo ") And others.
However, when using WAI-ARIA, it should be understood that, for example,
and
They are not equivalent, since the additional semantics of WAI-ARIA is intended solely for auxiliary software and does not affect the behavior of the browser. That is, the first example will be considered a link from the point of view of the screen reader, but from the point of view of the browser, it will still remain a normal block and will not be keyboard-focused via tabulation. As a result, at the first implementation it is necessary to add the tabindex attribute. So maybe it makes sense to simply use standard HTML structural elements to simplify the process of layout. In the end, if the user's configuration does not sufficiently support WAI-ARIA, then all the developer's efforts to support this technology may be meaningless, while using links, headers or lists in plain HTML will eliminate the need to additionally write things like role = "link / heading / list ", but will give the same effect.
Professionals involved in infrastructure web-projects, for example, in the development of browsers, also makes sense to read the document " WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide " (WAI-ARIA 1.0 implementation guide for client applications).
In general, the official approval of WAI-ARIA in the world of assistive technology is an important milestone, although perhaps people who are far from this do not quite feel the pathos of the moment. Everything necessary to ensure high availability of the modern Internet is now there, it only remains to hope that not only specialists in the narrow sphere of accessibility will appreciate it.
The development of WAI-ARIA began in 2008, and initial support for this technology appeared in browsers such as, for example, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.x, or Opera 9.5. True, due to the constant development of the standard, as well as its lack of official status, support for ARIA designs varies greatly from browser to browser. So, according to the latest research, Internet Explorer supports about 37% of all features, Firefox - 85%, and Chrome (right there and Opera) - 47%. In addition, various support software, in particular, screen access programs that blind users use in their work, also support WAI-ARIA to varying degrees and with different characteristics.
Thus, at the current stage of development of this technology, its full implementation in large projects is rather difficult to implement without involving serious expertise, because often the process of ensuring the accessibility of interfaces goes beyond the standard, moving into the field of adaptation to the specifics of browsers and assistive technologies, and sometimes frankly under their flaws. In addition, the most popular browsers among the target users of users are Firefox and Internet Explorer, which, as mentioned above, differ very seriously in the level of support for the standard, which adds a headache to the developer of interfaces.
With the approval of WAI-ARIA as the recommended standard, it can be expected that browser and auxiliary software developers will finally be able to focus on more serious support of the opportunities offered to them, since the technology has become outdated and has ceased to change constantly.
')
As for regular web developers, they should start their acquaintance with WAI-ARIA with a general overview and a note on the W3C blog , and then go directly to the standard itself. Basic things on additional semantic layout for screen access programs, such as assigning basic roles and state of elements, are already widely supported and do not involve super-deep immersion in the topic, therefore, compliance with WAI-ARIA at this level does not require serious efforts, while it solves the most acute problems availability. It is also useful to use navigation areas, that is, semantic highlighting of key areas of a page, such as a header (role = "banner"), navigation bar (role = "navigation"), main area (role = "main"), basement (role = "contentinfo ") And others.
However, when using WAI-ARIA, it should be understood that, for example,
<div role="link">text</div> and
<a href="...">text</a> They are not equivalent, since the additional semantics of WAI-ARIA is intended solely for auxiliary software and does not affect the behavior of the browser. That is, the first example will be considered a link from the point of view of the screen reader, but from the point of view of the browser, it will still remain a normal block and will not be keyboard-focused via tabulation. As a result, at the first implementation it is necessary to add the tabindex attribute. So maybe it makes sense to simply use standard HTML structural elements to simplify the process of layout. In the end, if the user's configuration does not sufficiently support WAI-ARIA, then all the developer's efforts to support this technology may be meaningless, while using links, headers or lists in plain HTML will eliminate the need to additionally write things like role = "link / heading / list ", but will give the same effect.
Professionals involved in infrastructure web-projects, for example, in the development of browsers, also makes sense to read the document " WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide " (WAI-ARIA 1.0 implementation guide for client applications).
In general, the official approval of WAI-ARIA in the world of assistive technology is an important milestone, although perhaps people who are far from this do not quite feel the pathos of the moment. Everything necessary to ensure high availability of the modern Internet is now there, it only remains to hope that not only specialists in the narrow sphere of accessibility will appreciate it.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/217855/
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