Bug 170317 – AX: <hr> should use a different role description than interactive separators

• Component: Accessibility
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[James Craig]

A VoiceOver user questioned why <hr> was spoken as "horizontal separator" when all other SRs call it the slightly less verbose "horizontal rule". Note: it's an implementation detail in that they both use the same WebCore role.

We could use a different WebCore role and use that to expose a different role description: "separator" -> "rule"

[Radar WebKit Bug Importer]

<rdar://problem/31363024>

[chris fleizach]

Created attachment 307097 [details]
patch

[Build Bot]

Comment on attachment 307097 [details]
patch

Attachment 307097 [details] did not pass mac-debug-ews (mac):
Output: http://webkit-queues.webkit.org/results/3532891

New failing tests:
accessibility/roles-exposed.html

[Build Bot]

Created attachment 307103 [details]
Archive of layout-test-results from ews113 for mac-elcapitan

The attached test failures were seen while running run-webkit-tests on the mac-debug-ews.
Bot: ews113  Port: mac-elcapitan  Platform: Mac OS X 10.11.6

[Build Bot]

Comment on attachment 307097 [details]
patch

Attachment 307097 [details] did not pass mac-ews (mac):
Output: http://webkit-queues.webkit.org/results/3532945

New failing tests:
accessibility/roles-exposed.html

[Build Bot]

Created attachment 307104 [details]
Archive of layout-test-results from ews102 for mac-elcapitan

The attached test failures were seen while running run-webkit-tests on the mac-ews.
Bot: ews102  Port: mac-elcapitan  Platform: Mac OS X 10.11.6

[Build Bot]

Comment on attachment 307097 [details]
patch

Attachment 307097 [details] did not pass mac-wk2-ews (mac-wk2):
Output: http://webkit-queues.webkit.org/results/3532949

New failing tests:
accessibility/roles-exposed.html

[Build Bot]

Created attachment 307105 [details]
Archive of layout-test-results from ews105 for mac-elcapitan-wk2

The attached test failures were seen while running run-webkit-tests on the mac-wk2-ews.
Bot: ews105  Port: mac-elcapitan-wk2  Platform: Mac OS X 10.11.6

[Joanmarie Diggs]

Comment on attachment 307097 [details]
patch

View in context: https://bugs.webkit.org/attachment.cgi?id=307097&action=review

> Source/WebCore/accessibility/AccessibilityRenderObject.cpp:2826
> +    // Horizontal rule roles can only be horizontal... even if you say it's vertical.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, of course. I cannot imagine what would motivate an author to use an HR element but style it so that it is vertical.

On the other hand, I've seen stranger things done by authors. And I've not found anything that says authors MUST NOT use an HR element styled vertically as a means to create a vertical rule. But perhaps more importantly, the HTML AAM indicates that the implicit role for HR [1] is the ARIA separator role, which of course allows for vertical orientation. And the ARIA in HTML spec says that HR supports "global aria-* attributes and any aria-* attributes applicable to the separator role." [2] So if something unforeseen motivated an author to create a vertical rule out of a styled HR element, and that author also took the time to use aria-orientation to cause it to be exposed to accessibility APIs as vertical, I think he/she has a reasonable expectation that user agents will respect that exposure (whether we happen to think it's a good idea or not).

[1] https://w3c.github.io/html-aam/#el-hr
[2] https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/#hr

[chris fleizach]

(In reply to Joanmarie Diggs (irc: joanie) from comment #9)
> Comment on attachment 307097 [details]
> patch
> 
> View in context:
> https://bugs.webkit.org/attachment.cgi?id=307097&action=review
> 
> > Source/WebCore/accessibility/AccessibilityRenderObject.cpp:2826
> > +    // Horizontal rule roles can only be horizontal... even if you say it's vertical.
> 
> I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, of course. I cannot
> imagine what would motivate an author to use an HR element but style it so
> that it is vertical.
> 
> On the other hand, I've seen stranger things done by authors. And I've not
> found anything that says authors MUST NOT use an HR element styled
> vertically as a means to create a vertical rule. But perhaps more
> importantly, the HTML AAM indicates that the implicit role for HR [1] is the
> ARIA separator role, which of course allows for vertical orientation. And
> the ARIA in HTML spec says that HR supports "global aria-* attributes and
> any aria-* attributes applicable to the separator role." [2] So if something
> unforeseen motivated an author to create a vertical rule out of a styled HR
> element, and that author also took the time to use aria-orientation to cause
> it to be exposed to accessibility APIs as vertical, I think he/she has a
> reasonable expectation that user agents will respect that exposure (whether
> we happen to think it's a good idea or not).

I'm ok leaving the code as is, which allows for orientation=vertical for an hr

> 
> [1] https://w3c.github.io/html-aam/#el-hr
> [2] https://www.w3.org/TR/html-aria/#hr

[Build Bot]

Comment on attachment 307097 [details]
patch

Attachment 307097 [details] did not pass ios-sim-ews (ios-simulator-wk2):
Output: http://webkit-queues.webkit.org/results/3535079

New failing tests:
webrtc/release-after-getting-track.html
webrtc/video-remote-mute.html
webrtc/multi-video.html
webrtc/peer-connection-audio-mute.html
webrtc/video-mediastreamtrack-stats.html
webrtc/video-disabled-black.html
webrtc/no-port-zero-in-upd-candidates.html
webrtc/rtcpeerconnection-error-messages.html
webrtc/peer-connection-remote-audio-mute.html
webrtc/video-with-data-channel.html

[Build Bot]

Created attachment 307144 [details]
Archive of layout-test-results from ews124 for ios-simulator-wk2

The attached test failures were seen while running run-webkit-tests on the ios-sim-ews.
Bot: ews124  Port: ios-simulator-wk2  Platform: Mac OS X 10.11.6

[chris fleizach]

Created attachment 307484 [details]
patch

[WebKit Commit Bot]

Comment on attachment 307484 [details]
patch

Clearing flags on attachment: 307484

Committed r215532: <http://trac.webkit.org/changeset/215532>

[WebKit Commit Bot]

All reviewed patches have been landed.  Closing bug.