1. Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
Presented by:
Bryan Garaventa, Accessibility Fellow
Terri Fellers, Director Accessibility Services

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CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

3. CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference
Overview
Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
What is ARIA?
ARIA Role Categories
Static ARIA Roles
Pseudo Interactive Roles
Interactive Widget Roles
Tools and Resources
Interactive Examples
Contact Information
CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

4. What is ARIA?

5. CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference
ARIA Definition
Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
ARIA stands for Accessible Rich Internet Applications
ARIA is a technical specification published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
It is important that the assistive technology is active and checking for MSAA changes before you activate the browser or program you are testing. False issues can often crop up when this is not followed.
CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

6. ARIA Role Categories

7. CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference
ARIA Role Categories
Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
Three Primary Categories:
Static ARIA roles – do not require any scripting
Pseudo Interactive roles – nearly static but require some scripting to properly implement
Interactive Widget roles – roles that cannot be used without comprehensive scripting
The ARIA Role Matrices can be used to quickly identify these categories, including specific implementation guidance:
It is important that the assistive technology is active and checking for MSAA changes before you activate the browser or program you are testing. False issues can often crop up when this is not followed.
CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

8. CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference
Static ARIA Roles
Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
Static ARIA Roles can be included within standard HTML markup and require no scripting.
Static ARIA Roles include:
Landmark and Region Roles: application, banner, complementary, contentinfo, form, main, navigation, region, search
Structural Roles: article, definition, directory + listitem, document, feed + article, figure, heading, img, list + listitem, math, notes, separator, table + cell, toolbar
Specialty Roles: none, presentation
It is important that the assistive technology is active and checking for MSAA changes before you activate the browser or program you are testing. False issues can often crop up when this is not followed.
CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

9. Pseudo Interactive Roles
Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
Pseudo Interactive Roles are static roles that can be included within standard HTML markup, but require some basic accompanying scripting to ensure proper functionality.
Pseudo Interactive Roles include:
Dialog Roles: alertdialog, dialog
Live Region Roles: alert, log, marquee, status, timer
It is important that the assistive technology is active and checking for MSAA changes before you activate the browser or program you are testing. False issues can often crop up when this is not followed.
CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

10. Interactive Widget Roles
Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
Interactive Widget Roles can be included in standard HTML markup, but require precise scripting to ensure proper functionality.
Interactive Widget Roles:
Simple Interactive Widget Roles: button, checkbox, link, progressbar, searchbox, scrollbar, slider, spinbutton, switch, textbox, tooltip
Complex Interactive Widget Roles: combobox, grid or treegrid + rowgroup + row + columnheader + gridcell, listbox + option, menu or menubar + menuitem or menuitemcheckbox or menuitemradio, radiogroup + radio, tablist + tab + tabpanel, tree + treeitem + group
It is important that the assistive technology is active and checking for MSAA changes before you activate the browser or program you are testing. False issues can often crop up when this is not followed.
CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

11. Interactive Examples

12. Tools and Resources

13. CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference
Tools and Resources
Static vs. Interactive Widget Roles: Ensuring Proper Functionality in ARIA
Visual ARIA tool:
ARIA Role Matrices:
The Accessibility Tree Training Guide: detailed training course for learning ARIA from beginning to end:
Archive of open source provably accessible widgets for use within any web technology project:
Powered by jQuery:
Powered by MooTools:
Powered by Dojo:
It is important that the assistive technology is active and checking for MSAA changes before you activate the browser or program you are testing. False issues can often crop up when this is not followed.
CSUN 2017 Assistive Technology Conference

14. Any Questions?

15. Thank you. Bryan Garaventa bryan. garaventa@ssbbartgroup
Thank you. Bryan Garaventa Terri Fellers