Copyright © 2006 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply.
The attributes defined in this specification enable XML [XML] languages to add information about the behavior of an element. States and Properties are mapped to accessibility frameworks (such as a screen reader) that use this information to provide alternative access solutions. Similarly, States and Properties can be used to change the rendering of content dynamically using different style sheet properties. The result is an interoperable method for associating behaviors with document-level markup.
This document and the Roles for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA Roles) [ARIA_ROLE] fill information gaps identified by the Roadmap for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA Roadmap) [ARIA-ROADMAP] to enable accessible dynamic Web content and applications. The WAI-ARIA Roadmap performs the gap analysis identifying what technology is needed to keep the new, richly interactive Web universally accessible. The WAI-ARIA Roles specification sets out an abstract model of building blocks for accessible interfaces. This includes interactive widgets, navigable structures, and an extension mechanism. This specification creates a language module implementing the functional requirements of the abstract model that is ready for incorporation in content format profiles that follow the methods of XHTML Modularization [XHTMLMOD]. It also introduces one such profile for the use of this module in XHTML.
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
This document is a Working Draft by the Protocols & Formats Working Group of the Web Accessibility Initiative. This version provides incremental new features described in the history of changes to WAI-ARIA States and Properties. Feedback on the format module provided here is essential to the ultimate success of the Web in creating Rich Internet Applications that afford full access to their information and operations. The PFWG asks in particular if:
Comments on this document may be sent to public-pfwg-comments@w3.org (Archive).
To assist you in your review, refer to the history of changes to WAI-ARIA States and Properties.
Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
The disclosure obligations of the Participants of this group are described in the charter.
This section is informative.
States and Properties are used to make interactive elements accessible, usable and interoperable.
States and Properties are used to declare important properties of an element that affect and describe interaction. These properties enable the user agent or operating system to properly handle the element—even when these properties are altered dynamically by scripts. Assistive technologies may access these properties through the Document Object Model [DOM]. However, the preferred mechansim is for the user agent to map the States and Properties to the accessibility API of the operating system.
For example, alternative input and output technology such as screen readers, speech dictation software and on-screen keyboards must recognize the state of an element (such as: if an object is disabled, checked, focused, collapsed, hidden, etc.).
Figure 1.0 illustrates a typical Document Object Model (DOM) [DOM] node. Placed within the DOM node and the assistive technology is a box containing the contract provided by the user agent to the assistive technology. This data includes typical accessibility information found in the accessibility API for many of our accessible platforms for GUIs (role, state, caret, selection, event notification, parent/child information, relationship, and descriptions).
For more information see the Roadmap for Accessible Rich Internet Applications for the use of roles in making interactive content accessible.
This section is informative.
This example shows a role being used to make a simple widget known to the user agent, so that the user agent can handle it correctly.
In this example a div has been used with scripts to act as a tristate checkbox. The ARIA State and Properties of checked has been set to true.
The XHTML role element gives the use agent information about the behavior of the widget. For more information on Roles see the Roles for Accessible Rich Internet Applications [ARIA_ROLE].
<span class="checkboxtristate" id="chbox1" role="wairole:checkboxtristate" aaa:checked="true" tabindex="0" onkeydown="return checkBoxEvent(event);" onkeyup="return checkBoxEvent(event);" > A checkbox label </span>
JavaScript can then manipulate the widget via the DOM. However, because States and Properties are mapped to the accessibility platforms, the assistive technology and user agents can understand the widget behavior and respond appropriately.
java script snippet : if ((event.type == "keyup" && event.button == 0){ // Toggle checkbox var checkbox = event.target; if (checkbox.getAttributeNS(" http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa ", "checked") == "true") { checkbox.removeAttributeNS(" http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa ", "checked"); } return false; // Don't continue propagating event} return true; // Browser can still use event }
Typically, States and Properties will work well with other supporting technologies, such as the Roles for Accessible Rich Internet Applications [ARIA_ROLE] and [XML events].
This section is informative.
While some terms are defined in place, the following definitions are used throughout this document. Familiarity with the W3C XHTML 1.1 Recommendation [XHTML] and the W3C XML 1.0 Recommendation [XML] is highly recommended.
Note: This definition is based on WCAG Accessibility Guidelines 2.0.
This section is informative.
The design aims of creating this specification include:
This section is informative.
An application becomes accessible when:
States and Properties can be used to build accessible applications by providing any missing states, properties, and relationships information that the assistive technology needs to understand the behavior of the elements inside the application.
States and Properties can be used for assigning meaningful properties that change with time and events. For element types and semantics that do not change with time, use a role taxonomy such as such as that defined in Roles for Accessible Rich Internet Applications [ARIA-ROLE].
To build an accessible application first check that each element or widget is marked with full and corrected semantics that fully describes its behavior (using element names or roles). Also ensure that all groups of content have been identified in the markup. Then use this specification to ensure:
This requires the author to:
For example: If the user is required to fill in a form element set the aaa:required property to true.
In other cases, one can use the States and Properties module to state relationships. For example: If container A contains search results, and container B contains the search controls, then mark each container as a region and set the aaa:controls property in region B to reference region A.
Sometimes the relationships can be made clear via the native markup language, such as the label tag in [HTML]. Sometimes this can be implied via the [DOM]. For example, when a well marked-up list contains list items it is known that they belong to the containing list. In such cases you do not need to set additional properties to make that explicit.
An important addition in the States and Properties Module is new extensions of TABINDEX. Now, with the TABINDEX change, the author is allowed to give any element keyboard focus (and not just form elements or anchors). In this paradigm shift, the user may use tabbing or keyboard mnemonics to move focus to widgets on the Web page and then use the arrow keys to navigate the object. The TABINDEX change enables support of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines ([UAAG]).
This section is normative.
The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
States and Properties is not a stand-alone document type. It is intended to be integrated into other host languages such as XHTML. A conforming document is a document that requires only the facilities described as mandatory in this specification and the facilities described as mandatory in its host language. Such a document must meet all the following criteria:
The document must conform to the constraints expressed in Appendix A. DTD Implementation combined with the constraints expressed in its host language implementation.
Editorial Note: the public string of the DTD may need to be updated to match ARIA name, here and elsewhere it appears. We also need to look at what this would do to the aaa namespace, and whether it should have trailing slash (currently does because of link checker).
<html xmlns="
http://www.w3.org/2002/06/xhtml2/
" xml:lang="en" xmlns:aaa="
http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa
" >
When States and Properties are included in a host language, all of the facilities required in this specification must be included in the host language.
A conforming user agent must support all of the features required in this specification in the DOM.
This section is normative.
This specification defines the States and Properties module for XHTML [XHTML]. It also defines a representative profile which extends the XHTML 1.1 - Full profile by adding this module.
All examples are informative. Examples in this document that use the
namespace prefix "aaa" all assume a valid XML namespace declaration
xmlns:aaa = "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa"
in the document involved.
Section 3.1 below discusses examples of how the module may be integrated into language profiles. Section 3.2 below then defines the particulars of the module.
Language profiles wishing to use these states and properties must integrate the module in a way which makes this document the governing specification for the semantics of these language features. Appropriate methods of module integration include but are not limited to all methods as specified in XHTML Modularization [XHTMLMOD].
Appendix A.2 provides a driver DTD which integrates a new profile for XHTML which augments XHTML 1.1 Full with the capabilities in the new module introduced here.
Valid XHTML 1.1 documents that wish to use this profile must use the following DOCTYPE declaration:
<DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa.dtd">
Attributes for States and Properties should be used with prefix "aaa". For example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en"> <head> <title>DHTML Checkbox</title> </head> <body> <p>Here's a three state checkbox that you can click on.</p> <div class="checkboxtristate " role="checkboxtristate" id=" chbox1" aaa:required="true" aaa:readonly="true " aaa:random="sometext " onkeydown="return checkBoxEvent(event);" onclick="return checkBoxEvent(event);" > Sign me up for all the weekly rdf and xml newsletters :) </div> </body> </html>
You can change the default prefix by extending the DOCTYPE of your XHTML document.
The following code would define "state" as the prefix for the WAI-ARIA attributes.
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//ELEMENTS DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa-base.dtd" [ <!ENTITY % aaa.prefixed "INCLUDE"> <!ENTITY % aaa.prefix "state"> ]>
Tabindex is not a state and has not been added to the http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa namespace. However, to help the accessibility of accessible XHTML applications Tabindex has been added to the tags div, span, p, td, th and li in the extended XHTML Doctype. The TABINDEX change enables support of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines ([UAAG]). Tabindex should not be used with a prefix.
Prefixes can sometimes be dropped when using XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications. For example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//ELEMENTS DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa-base.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml " xml:lang="en "> <head> <title>DHTML Checkbox</title > </head> <body> <p >Here's a three state checkbox that you can click on.</p> <div class="checkboxtristate " role= "checkboxtristate" id="chbox1 " required="true" readonly="true " random="sometext " onkeydown="return checkBoxEvent(event);" onclick="return checkBoxEvent(event);"> Sign me up for weekly rdf newsletter :) </div> </body> </html>
However, this is not advisable because of namespace conflict. The ARIA States and Properties XHTML 1.1 module extends already existing attributes such as readonly. These attributes therefore require prefixing. We therefore recommend always using the default "aaa" prefix.
The list of conflicts are:
States and Properties can also be used with other XML languages using the following namespace :
xmlns:aaa="http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa"
The following example demonstrates using States and Properties with SVG [SVG]:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE svg PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD SVG 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/1.1/DTD/svg11-flat-20030114.dtd"> <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg " xmlns:aaa="http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa " width="100% " height="100% "> <desc> Example of using state-attributes from Accessible Adaptable Applications Namespace: </desc> <!-- an expanded group of rectangles --> <g aaa:expanded="true "> <!-- this rectangle is zoomed --> x="1cm " y="3cm " width="1cm " height="1cm " /> <rect x="3cm " y="3cm " width="1cm " height="1cm " /> </g> </svg>
The States and Properties Module supports the following attributes:
State | Value | Description | Base and Related Concepts |
---|---|---|---|
checked | (true | false | mixed) | This state is used for 2-state or 3
-state widgets such as checkboxes. The current state is determined
from the value property.
If "true", indicates that the current item is checked. The value "mixed" indicates a mixed mode for a tri-state checkbox. Can be set to "false" on roles that support being checked but are not currently checked. |
|
disabled | (true | false) | Indicates that the widget is present,
but is not allowed for user actions. For example, irrelevant options
in a radio group may be disabled.
Disabled elements often cannot have focus. There should be a change of appearance to indicate that the item has been disabled (grayed out, etc.). |
|
readonly | (true | false) |
Indicates that the widget is not editable. Unlike a disabled object, readonly objects are relevant to the user. Examples include:
|
[XForms] Readonly |
multiselectable | (true | false) | Indicates that user may select more
than one item from the current list.
Examples include: lists, trees, spreadsheets |
|
activedescendent | IDREF |
An element which has focus may specify its current active child. This is used when a element is responsible for managing its current active child to reduce the overhead of having all children be focusable. Examples include: multi-level lists, trees, spreadsheets. |
[SVG] [DOM] active |
expanded | (true | false | undefined) | Indicates that an
expandable/collapsible group of elements is currently expanded or
collapsed.
Examples include: to expand or collapse a portion of the tree, or an "expanded" version such as acronyms, rollovers, diagram sections. |
Tapered prompts in voice browsing. Switch in [SMIL] . |
selected | (true | false | undefined) | This sets whether the user has
selected an item or not. For example, a role such as a radio button
may support being selected, but that does not mean that at any one
time it is selected.
|
|
required | (true | false) | Indicates that some user-input is
required before submission. For example, if a user must fill in an
address field, then required is set to true.
Note, the fact that the element is required is often visually presented (such as a sign or symbol after the control). Using the required attribute makes it much easier for user agents to pass on this important information to the user. |
|
valuenow | CDATA | The current value of a widget. Used
for a range control such as slider, progress bar, and date.
If the value is not known (as often occurs with progress bars) then valuenow should be set to "unknown". If valuenow has not been set then it's value is "unknown". An author has the option of specifying a datatype for valuenow to help an assistive technology process the value in a meaningful way, such as providing a |
[XForms] range, start |
valuemax | CDATA |
Maximum allowed value for a range type of widget. A range control may start with a value but then that value can change until a max value. Declaring the valuemax will allow for alternate device to calibrate an arrow up effect, validate, or simply let the user know the size of the range on offer. An author has the option of specifying a datatype for valuenow to help an assistive technology process the value in a meaningful way, such as providing a |
[XForms] range |
valuemin | CDATA |
Minimum allowed value for a range type of widget. A range control may start with a value but then that value may change until a minimum value. Declaring the valuemin allows for alternate device to calibrate an arrow up effect, validate, or simply let the user know the size of the range on offer. An author has the option of specifying a datatype for valuenow to help an assistive technology process the value in a meaningful way, such as providing a |
[XForms] range |
invalid | (true | false) |
Indicates that the element's value is currently invalid, which discourages the form from being submitted. If the state is computed to be invalid, out-of-range, or required this value should be set as true. |
[XForms] 'invalid' event http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xforms-20060314/slice4.html#evt-revalidate Note: This state is true if a form field is required but empty. However, [XForms]'s valid property would be set to false. |
describedby | IDREFS |
Points to an element which describes the widget. (A label should provide the user with the essence of the what the object does whereas describedby is intended to provide additional information which some users might need. ) |
Related concepts: [HTML] label element, and [HTML] table cell headers are de facto describedby values. |
labelledby | IDREFS |
Points to element which labels the widget. The label should provide the user with the essence of the what the object does whereas describedby provides additional information which some users might need. Should this be "labelledby" or "labeledby"? One "l" is American English (W3C standard), two "l"s is British English. |
A related concept is label in [XForms] and [HTML]. |
hasparent | IDREF |
Points to parent element for objects that are conceptually nested but not syntactically nested in the code. For example, a pop up menu may point to it's parent menu item. |
baseConcept:Booch:part/whole (in direction from part to whole, DC:isPartOf |
haspopup | IDREF |
This is a special case of |
This is a sub property of owns
[UAAG] conditional content |
tabindex
(Note: The applicability of this attribute has been extended to the div, span, p, td, th and li elements, within the XHTML namespace. It should not be used with a prefix referring to the [aaa namespace].) |
Number
(Note: The value range has been extended to include negative numbers.) |
Elements bearing Negative values of
TABINDEX are able to receive focus but are not included in the basic
'tabbing' navigation list or cycle.
Elements of types div, span, p, td, th and li for which no TABINDEX value is given likewise do not participate in the 'tabbing' navigation list. Elements with disabled="true" do not participate in the tabbing navigation list. Elements bearing positive values of TABINDEX are navigated as in the [HTML] 4.01 Specification, to wit: Those elements that support the tabindex attribute and assign a positive value to it are navigated first. Navigation proceeds from the element with the lowest tabindex value to the element with the highest value. Values need not be sequential nor must they begin with any particular value. Elements that have identical tabindex values should be navigated in the order they appear in the character stream. Elements of types div, span, p, td, th and li bearing a zero value of TABINDEX, together with elements of types A, AREA, BUTTON, INPUT, OBJECT, SELECT, TEXTAREA bearing a zero value or no value of TABINDEX, are navigated next, as in [HTML] 4.01: These elements are navigated in the order they appear in the character stream. |
[SVG]: focus |
flowto | IDREF | The ID of the next element in the default page reading order. |
[XHTML] 2.0 :nextfocus [XHTML] 2.0 :prevfocus |
controls | IDREFS | Controls is used to define the elements that are controlled by the current element. |
[XML events] object hyperlink target in [HTML] |
live | (off | polite | assertive | rude) |
Describes the types of updates the user agent, assistive technology, and user can expect from an alert or live region of Web content. It is essential to describe the types of updates the user agent and user can expect from a live region of Web content. Values:
Examples include:
|
|
atomic | (true | false) |
Atomic is an optional property of live regions. When the region is updated, the atomic property is used to indicate if the assistive technology should present all or part of the changed region to the user.
Both accessibility API's and the Document Object Model [DOM] provide events to allow the assistive technology to determine changes areas of the document. |
|
relevant | (additions | removals | text | all) |
Relevant is an optional property of live regions within a document. The relevant property is used to indicate the relevant areas of change within the region. Relevant is unrestrictive as to how an assistive technology processes attributes. When the relevant property is not provided, the default is to assume there are text changes and additions. The property is represented as space delimited list containing one or more of the following values:
Both accessibility API's and the Document Object Model [DOM] provide events to allow the assistive technology to determine changes areas of the document. |
|
owns | IDREFS | The owns property defines an object as a parent of another document element, however the child does not appear directly in the subtree of the owner. | |
level | Number | Level is the hierarchical level of an element within a structure. This can be applied inside trees to tree items, or to headings inside a document. Levels must be >= 1. | |
datatype | CDATA | Datatype defines the format type of an
element. Datatypes should be a qname that refer to an [XSD] defined type. For example, a
datatype may be xsd:integer.
The author can also define custom datatypes, but clearly [XSD] base types are simpler for the user agent to understand. If valuenow is specified and no datatype is provided it is assumed that the datatype is a string. |
|
posinset | Number | The posinset property is used to indicate an item's number or position in the current level. For example, if this element is the third item in a group then posinset is equal to three (integer: 1<=posinset<=n.) | |
setsize | Number | The setsize property refers to the number of items in the current level. For example, if this element is in a group of six items at the same level then setsize is equal to six. Setsize must be >= 1. | |
sort | ( ascending | descending) | The sort property is used to indicate
if items are sorted in ascending or descending order. Should be
applied only to headers.
Values:
|
This section is informative.
XForms [XFORMS] is designed based on a model view controller architecture. Data model and styling are separated from the actual form elements. This provides for a much more flexible forms model. The rendering is up to the user agent and styling. If the author knows the type of widget that will be generated they may simply add role information to the element or, depending on the deployment, this information could be provided by the User Agent. The appearance may be suggested as parameters to the form elements such as in the case of a select1 , which may be used to represent a radio button. In these situations it is less important to know what the rendering of the element is as the tag defines the semantics. Note: Invalid is a managed state in XFORMS. However in most other languages (such as HTML] forms) it is not managed.
This section is normative.
Note that this module defines the parameter entity
aaa.attrs.qname;
. This entity is intended to be used in the
attribute lists of elements in any host language that permits the use of AAA
attributes on elements in its own namespace. In this case the Host Language
driver should set a parameter entity %aaa.prefixed;
to
INCLUDE.
The default prefix to be used is aaa:.
<!-- ...................................................................... --> <!-- aaa-qname Module ................................................... --> <!-- file: aaa-qname.mod PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications Namespace//EN" SYSTEM "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/aaa-qname.mod"> xmlns:aaa="http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa " ...................................................................... --> <!ENTITY % XHTML.version "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications Namespace//EN" > <!-- 1. Namespace declarations ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: --> <!ENTITY % NS.prefixed "IGNORE" > <!ENTITY % aaa.prefixed "%NS.prefixed;" > <!-- Declare the actual namespace of this module --> <!ENTITY % aaa.xmlns "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa" > <!ENTITY % aaa.prefix "aaa" > <![%aaa.prefixed;[ <!ENTITY % aaa.xmlns.extra.attrib "" > ]]> <!ENTITY % aaa.xmlns.extra.attrib "" > <![%aaa.prefixed;[ <!ENTITY % aaa.pfx "%aaa.prefix;:" > <!ENTITY % aaa.xmlns.attrib "xmlns:%aaa.prefix; CDATA #FIXED '%aaa.xmlns;' %aaa.xmlns.extra.attrib;" > ]]> <!ENTITY % aaa.pfx "" > <!ENTITY % aaa.xmlns.attrib "xmlns CDATA #FIXED '%aaa.xmlns;' %aaa.xmlns.extra.attrib;" > <![%NS.prefixed;[ <!ENTITY % XHTML.xmlns.extra.attrib "%aaa.xmlns.attrib;" > ]]> <!-- 2. XML Qualified Names for AAA ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: --> <!-- This section declares parameter entities used to provide namespace-qualified names for all element types. --> <!ENTITY % xhtml-datatypes.mod PUBLIC "-//W3C//ENTITIES XHTML Datatypes 1.0//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization/DTD/xhtml-datatypes-1.mod" > %xhtml-datatypes.mod; <!-- core attributes to add to all elements; --> <!-- states --> <!ENTITY % aaa.checked.qname "%aaa.pfx;checked" > <!ENTITY % aaa.disabled.qname "%aaa.pfx;disabled" > <!ENTITY % aaa.expanded.qname "%aaa.pfx;expanded" > <!ENTITY % aaa.invalid.qname "%aaa.pfx;invalid" > <!ENTITY % aaa.multiselectable.qname "%aaa.pfx;multiselectable" > <!ENTITY % aaa.readonly.qname "%aaa.pfx;readonly" > <!ENTITY % aaa.selected.qname "%aaa.pfx;selected" > <!-- properties --> <!ENTITY % aaa.activedescendent.qname "%aaa.pfx;activedescendent" > <!ENTITY % aaa.atomic.qname "%aaa.pfx;atomic" > <!ENTITY % aaa.controls.qname "%aaa.pfx;controls" > <!ENTITY % aaa.datatype.qname "%aaa.pfx;datatype" > <!ENTITY % aaa.describedby.qname "%aaa.pfx;describedby" > <!ENTITY % aaa.flowto.qname "%aaa.pfx;flowto" > <!ENTITY % aaa.hasparent.qname "%aaa.pfx;hasparent" > <!ENTITY % aaa.haspopup.qname "%aaa.pfx;haspopup" > <!ENTITY % aaa.labelledby.qname "%aaa.pfx;labelledby" > <!ENTITY % aaa.level.qname "%aaa.pfx;level" > <!ENTITY % aaa.live.qname "%aaa.pfx;live" > <!ENTITY % aaa.owns.qname "%aaa.pfx;owns" > <!ENTITY % aaa.posinset.qname "%aaa.pfx;posinset" > <!ENTITY % aaa.relevant.qname "%aaa.pfx;relevant" > <!ENTITY % aaa.required.qname "%aaa.pfx;required" > <!ENTITY % aaa.setsize.qname "%aaa.pfx;setsize" > <!ENTITY % aaa.sort.qname "%aaa.pfx;sort" > <!ENTITY % aaa.valuemax.qname "%aaa.pfx;valuemax" > <!ENTITY % aaa.valuemin.qname "%aaa.pfx;valuemin" > <!ENTITY % aaa.valuenow.qname "%aaa.pfx;valuenow" > <!-- tabindex --> <!ENTITY % aaa.tabindex.qname "tabindex" > <!-- The following defines a PE for use in the attribute sets of elements in other namespaces that want to incorporate the XML Role attributes. Note that in this case the XML-ROLES.pfx should always be defined. --> <!ENTITY % aaa.states.qname "%aaa.checked.qname; (true | false | mixed) #IMPLIED %aaa.disabled.qname; (true | false) #IMPLIED %aaa.expanded.qname; (true | false) #IMPLIED %aaa.invalid.qname; (true | false) #IMPLIED %aaa.multiselectable.qname; (true | false) #IMPLIED %aaa.readonly.qname; (true | false) #IMPLIED %aaa.selected.qname; (true | false | undefined) #IMPLIED" > <!ENTITY % aaa.props.qname "%aaa.activedescendent.qname; IDREF #IMPLIED %aaa.controls.qname; IDREFS #IMPLIED %aaa.atomic.qname; (true | false) 'false' %aaa.datatype.qname; CDATA #IMPLIED %aaa.describedby.qname; IDREFS #IMPLIED %aaa.flowto.qname; IDREF #IMPLIED %aaa.hasparent.qname; IDREF #IMPLIED %aaa.haspopup.qname; IDREF #IMPLIED %aaa.labelledby.qname; IDREFS #IMPLIED %aaa.level.qname; %Number.datatype; #IMPLIED %aaa.live.qname; (off | polite | assertive | rude) #IMPLIED %aaa.owns.qname; IDREFS #IMPLIED %aaa.posinset.qname; %Number.datatype; #IMPLIED %aaa.relevant.qname; (additions | removals | text | all) #IMPLIED %aaa.required.qname; (true | false) #IMPLIED %aaa.setsize.qname; %Number.datatype; #IMPLIED %aaa.sort.qname; (Ascending | Descending) #IMPLIED %aaa.valuemax.qname; CDATA #IMPLIED %aaa.valuemin.qname; CDATA #IMPLIED %aaa.valuenow.qname; CDATA #IMPLIED" > <!ENTITY % aaa.extra.attrs.qname "%aaa.tabindex.qname; %Number.datatype; #IMPLIED" > <!ENTITY % aaa.attrs.qname "%aaa.states.qname; %aaa.props.qname; %aaa.extra.attrs.qname;" > <!ENTITY % aaa-qname.module "IGNORE" > <!-- End aaa-qname Module ................................................... -->
This DTD extends XHTML 1.1 and adds the States and Property attributes to all its elements.
The attribute tabindex
is added to elements p
,
div
, span
, th
, td
and
li
<!-- ELEMENTS DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications --> <!-- File: xhtml11-aaa-base.dtd Copyright (c) 2005, Unbounded Access, All Rights Reserved. This DTD module is identified by the PUBLIC and SYSTEM identifiers: PUBLIC "-//W3C//ELEMENTS DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" SYSTEM "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa-base.dtd" xmlns:aaa="http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa" The DOCTYPE declaration that should be used is as follows; <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//ELEMENTS DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa-base.dtd"> ...................................................................... --> <!ENTITY % XHTML.version "-//W3C//ELEMENTS DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" > <!ENTITY % aaa-qname.mod PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications Namespace//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/aaa-qname.mod" > %aaa-qname.mod; <!-- add AAA attribute set to all XHTML elements --> <!ENTITY % Common.extra.attrib "%aaa.attrs.qname;" > <!ENTITY % xhtml11.mod PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd" > %xhtml11.mod; <!-- add tabindex to text containers --> <!ATTLIST %div.qname; %aaa.extra.attrs.qname; > <!ATTLIST %span.qname; %aaa.extra.attrs.qname; > <!ATTLIST %p.qname; %aaa.extra.attrs.qname; > <!ATTLIST %th.qname; %aaa.extra.attrs.qname; > <!ATTLIST %td.qname; %aaa.extra.attrs.qname; > <!ATTLIST %li.qname; %aaa.extra.attrs.qname; > <!ENTITY % aaa.prefixed "INCLUDE"> <!-- End xhtml11-aaa-base.dtd -->
This DTD requires the use of the "aaa" prefix.
<!-- DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications --> <!-- File: xhtml11-aaa.dtd Copyright (c) 2005, Unbounded Access, All Rights Reserved. This DTD module is identified by the PUBLIC and SYSTEM identifiers: PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" SYSTEM "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa.dtd" xmlns:aaa="http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa" The DOCTYPE declaration that should be used is as follows; <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa.dtd"> ...................................................................... --> <!ENTITY % XHTML.version "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" > <!-- Enable prefixing --> <!ENTITY % aaa.prefixed "INCLUDE"> <!ENTITY % xhtml11-aaa.mod PUBLIC "-//W3C//ELEMENTS DTD XHTML 1.1 For Accessible Adaptable Applications//EN" "http://www.w3.org/2005/07/aaa/xhtml11-aaa-base.dtd" > %xhtml11-aaa.mod; <!-- End xhtml11-aaa.dtd -->
This section is informative.
Managed states are state attributes managed and controlled by the user agent. Often these states have corresponding CSS pseudo classes to reflect necessary style changes. The states in this specification are typically controlled by the author and are not managed (unmanaged) states.
Accessibility API's typically map to both managed and unmanaged states. An example of a managed state would be element focus and hover.
Note: Invalid is a managed state in [XForms]. However in most other languages (such as [HTML] forms) it is not managed.
This section is informative.
Mapped properties (Please note: This is a common subset of all mapping options)
States and Properties module | User Agent mapping via MSAA | User Agent mapping via ATK |
---|---|---|
disabled | MSAA:STATE_SYSTEM_UNAVAILABLE | ATK:ATK_STATE_DISABLED |
checked | MSAA: STATE_SYSTEM_CHECKED | ATK: ATK_STATE_CHECKED |
expanded | If the hidden property is set to true
: MSAA:STATE_SYSTEM_COLLAPSED
If the hidden property is set to false: MSAA:STATE_SYSTEM_EXPANDED |
If the hidden property is set to true
: ATK: ATK_STATE_EXPANDABLE
If the hidden property is set to false: ATK:ATK_STATE_EXPANDED |
haspopup | This state should be mapped to true on
Windows systems when an event handler has a role of pop-up menu.
MSAA: haspopup |
ATK: not necessary in ATK because it has multiple actions with description |
invalid | MSAA: no mapping
In the case of MSAA the user agent should provide a specialized API to return its value. Alternatively, if the user agent provides a specialized API for [XForms] it may provide invalid(), outOfRange(), or empty() (returns true when required but not available). This information is computed from the instance data associated with the form element. |
ATK:ATK_STATE_INVALID |
multiselectable | MSAA:STATE_SYSTEM_EXTSELECTABLE | ATK:ATK_STATE_MULTISELECTABLE |
pressed | MSAA: STATE_SYSTEM_PRESSED is true when checked. | ATK: ATK_STATE_PRESSED is true when checked |
readonly | MSAA:STATE_SYSTEM_READONLY | ATK:ATK_STATE_READONLY=inverse of readonly |
required | MSAA: There is no mapping.
User agent must make available through the [DOM] or a specialized API. Note: While optional could be combined with required this is kept to be consistent with CSS3 pseudo classes and [XForms]. |
ATK: There is no mapping. |
selected | MSAA:STATE_SYSTEM_SELECTED | ATK:ATK_STATE_SELECTED |
unknown | MSAA:mixed | ATK:indeterminate |
value | MSAA: should return the value for getValue(). | ATK: should return this as part of the AccessibleValue structure. |
(As yet) unmapped properties are:
This section is informative.
The following contributed to the development of this document.
Jim Allan (TSBVI)
Judy Brewer (W3C/MIT)
Michael Cooper (W3C/MIT)
Donald Evans (AOL)
Kentarou Fukuda (IBM)
Alfred S. Gilman
Andres Gonzalez (Adobe)
Georgios Grigoriadis (SAP AG)
Jeff Grimes (Oracle)
Jon Gunderson (UIUC)
Alex Li (SAP AG)
Charles McCathieNevile (Opera)
Dave Pawson (RNIB)
David Poehlman (State of MD)
Janina Sajka (FSG)
Richard Schwerdtfeger (IBM)
Lisa Seeman (UB Access)
Ryan Williams (Oracle)
Gottfried Zimmermann (Access Technologies Group)
Special thanks to Aaron Leventhal for effort and insight as he implemented a working prototype of accessibility API bindings.
Christian Cohrs, Becky Gibson, Barbara Hartel, Jael Kurz, Vitaly Sourikov.
This publication has been funded in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education under contract number ED05CO0039. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.