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Missing definition: current element #1152
Description
The term "current element" is used throughout the specification, without any indication of what this means. Presumably this is the active element, but if so, it's not obvious why a different term is used.
Activity
JAWS-test commentedon Jan 15, 2020
Current Element does not mean the active element, but a reference to itself, e.g.
That is, a label for the element that has the
aria-labelattribute, regardless of whether the element has the focus or notWilcoFiers commentedon Jan 15, 2020
Makes sense, but then what does it mean when it's used in 2.3.2, for example:
There is no role or property spec'ed out there.
jnurthen commentedon Jan 15, 2020
@WilcoFiers This needs clarifying. In this case it means "the element being focused" but each case is going to differ. We could do better a job here.
Thanks for the issue. Any chance you want to propose some PRs to clarify the uses of current element in the document?
WilcoFiers commentedon Jan 20, 2020
@jnurthen Thanks for the clarification. I'm going to try to get my review done first.
joanmarie commentedon Feb 20, 2020
@WilcoFiers since you indicated a willingness to possibly take this on, assigning to you for now. Please unassign if too busy and we'll see what we can do. Thanks!
carmacleod commentedon Feb 27, 2020
The ARIA Working Group just discussed
Missing definition: current element.The full IRC log of that discussion
<carmacleod> github: https://github.com//issues/1152<carmacleod> jamesn: waiting on wilco
pkra commentedon Apr 15, 2021
Finally getting to this, I have a question.
There seem to be only two uses of "current element" in the spec.
a) in the focus management section
b) in the context of aria attribute and their values, referring to the element with the attribute.
For a), I plan to follow @jnurthen's suggestion in #1152 (comment)
For b) here's my question: is there a spec-preferred way to refer to the element holding the attribute?
I'd love to have a clear term (given the topic of this thread) but will start with "the element with [attribute]" and possibly leverage the style of the HTML spec.
Please let me know if I missed the right term for this.
clarify "current element"
pkra commentedon Apr 16, 2021
first draft: #1460
clarify "current element" (#1460)
clarify "current element" (#1460)