[pmwiki-devel] [patch] WAI-ARIA landmark roles for improved accessibility in default template

[Peter Krantz]

On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 13:38, Petko Yotov <5ko at 5ko.fr> wrote:
>
> At the moment, not only the specification isn't finalized, but unfortunately
> implementing it would break an actual standard with which PmWiki tries to
> comply : XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

Work is currently underway to modify the W3C validator to allow for
WAI-ARIA attributes in existing HTML. You can already validate XHTML
1.0 Transitional+ARIA by using the SAC validator (packaged version of
the W3 validator for offline use). Read more here:

http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=108

Although the specification isn't finalized the working group
recommends implementing WAI-ARIA now [1] as browsers and assistive
technology are implementing support already. Currently, both Wordpress
and Joomla have incorporated ARIA patches for their default themes.

Personally I take accessibility over validation any day (:-) but a
different option would be to set the role attribute with javascript as
outlined here:

http://www.standards-schmandards.com/2009/wai-aria-landmark-role-patterns/

This would allow you to pass validation, but still provide the
landmark roles if the user can run javascript.

[1]: http://www.w3.org/WAI/aria/faq#do_now


>
> Until the specification becomes a standard, you may wish to create a Cookbook
> recipe to help wiki admins willing to use it.

That could be an option but having it implemented in the default theme
would help more people (who wouldn't want their wiki to be more
accessible?).

Regards,

Peter