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Consider whether or not to change markup for left and right pointing arrows #1368

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@carmacleod

The Required Owned Elements characteristic for certain container roles specifies that its items can be grouped.
For example, one of the Required Owned Elements for listbox is group → option.

The markup to denote this currently uses a right-pointing arrow character in an abbr element with title="containing", as follows:

<abbr title="containing" class="symbol">→</abbr>

After #1359 is merged, the Required Context Role characteristic for "groupable" item roles will also use similar markup, except with a left-pointing arrow character in an abbr with title="contained by":

<abbr title="contained by" class="symbol">←</abbr>

For example, one of the Required Context Roles for option is group ← listbox.

Unfortunately, abbr with title is problematic in screen readers. At best, the screen reader will say "right-pointing arrow" or "left-pointing arrow" (some screen readers have a setting for reading the title, but it is not the default).

This issue is to determine whether we should change this markup or leave it alone.
Random thoughts:

  • if we wrap the arrow character in an aria-hidden span, do screen readers fall back to reading the title because there's no content?
  • should we delete the abbr markup completely and just go with the text "containing" and "contained by"?

Activity

  1. carmacleod commented on Dec 17, 2020

    @carmacleod
    ContributorAuthor

    For those who may be wondering what the visual effect of simply dropping the arrow and going with the words would be, here's Required Owned Elements for listbox:

    1. Using right pointing arrow for group -> option:
      image

    2. Using the word "containing" for group containing option:
      image

    Using words looks totally fine to me. It's probably clearer for everyone.

  2. JAWS-test commented on Dec 17, 2020

    @JAWS-test
    Contributor

    Using words looks totally fine to me. It's probably clearer for everyone.

    +1

  3. pkra commented on Dec 17, 2020

    @pkra
    Member

    should we delete the abbr markup completely and just go with the text "containing" and "contained by"?

    +1

  4. self-assigned this
    on Dec 17, 2020
  5. added this to the ARIA 1.3 milestone on Dec 17, 2020
  6. added
    editoriala change to an example, note, spelling, grammar, or is related to publishing or the repo
    on Dec 17, 2020
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editoriala change to an example, note, spelling, grammar, or is related to publishing or the repo

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