Bug 23637 – Populate role attribute for Table cells and Table header elements

• Component: Accessibility
• Status: RESOLVED INVALID

[Sankar Aditya Tanguturi]

When a webpage is loaded in WebKit and Inspect32 tool is invoked, role attribute for Table Cells and Table Header elements is not properly assigned. Role attribute for those elements should be set to CellRole (ROLE_SYSTEM_CELL)

This behavior can be identified in Firefox 2.0.0.16

~ Thanks
Sankar.

[Sankar Aditya Tanguturi]

Created attachment 27175 [details]
Patch to populate role attribute for td and th elements.

Patch to appropriately set the role attribute for td and th elements. (This behavior is implemented to match Firefox 2.0.0.14).

This patch has already been approved by Jon in bug 20013. But, that bug is closed. This specific patch uploaded in this bug contains a new test case that is added.

~ Thanks
Sankar.

[Mark Rowe (bdash)]

Isn't this already handled by AccessibilityTableCell?

[Sankar Aditya Tanguturi]

From the code, it seems it is already handled. But, i have taken latest nightly build and tested my test case. Table header and Table cells returns role as grouping instead of Cell. I don't know why this behavior is seen.

~ Thanks
Sankar.

(In reply to comment #2)
> Isn't this already handled by AccessibilityTableCell?
> 

[chris fleizach]

there's already an accessibility table cell class

[Sankar Aditya Tanguturi]

Yeah. I have checked that class. But, I don't know why my test case fails with webkit nightly build (without applying my patch). You can try executing test case attached in that patch.

~ Thanks.

(In reply to comment #4)
> there's already an accessibility table cell class
> 

[chris fleizach]

the test fails for two reasons i see

1) the first child of the body would be a Table element
2) that table won't appear as a table, because it looks like a "layout" table. in that there are no borders

[Sankar Aditya Tanguturi]

Ok. I will check the behavior again. But, in any case, cell elements should be focusable. (This can be observed in Firefox). I will update the patch and upload the new patch.

Thanks.
Sankar.

(In reply to comment #6)
> the test fails for two reasons i see
> 
> 1) the first child of the body would be a Table element
> 2) that table won't appear as a table, because it looks like a "layout" table.
> in that there are no borders
> 

[chris fleizach]

as far as i know, on safari a cell element cannot have focus

[Sankar Aditya Tanguturi]

If for sure, cell element on safari cannot have focus, I will close this bug.

~ Thanks
Sankar.

(In reply to comment #8)
> as far as i know, on safari a cell element cannot have focus
> 

[Eric Seidel (no email)]

Comment on attachment 27175 [details]
Patch to populate role attribute for td and th elements.

One of your ChangeLogs is still missing your full name.  Your "Reviewed by" line is out of the normal order that ChagneLogs seem to follow.

Did you run the layout tests?  The last couple patches I've landed re: AX have failed layout tests. :(

[Eric Seidel (no email)]

Comment on attachment 27175 [details]
Patch to populate role attribute for td and th elements.

No answer from Sankar.  Marking r- assuming that this patch will break layout tests (the last two patches I landed from Sankar did).

Please fix the ChangeLog and repost with a comment ensuring that you've run the layout tests with this change.

[James Craig]

Closing as invalid. Table cells should not be focusable by default. If he needs a focusable grid, he can achieve with an ARIA grid and managed focus using tabindex.