Re: [orca-list] Clicking hotspot Links and Flat Review?

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

Mallory van Achterberg <stommepoes stommepoes nl> wrote:
> I just got back from a front-end conference where Derek Featherstone
> talked about exactly this: fake buttons, fake links, fake checkboxes
> and more... becoming more and more popular on the web.

What do you mean by "fake"? Do you mean implemented in Javascript rather than
as an HTML form control?

A typical example of this would be a tri-state checkbox, which has three
states rather than two. There is no HTML form control for this, but it can be
implemented, for example, as an HTML DIV element with associated Javascript
code.

User interface controls written in this way can be made accessible with Aria.
Indeed, this is one of the primary reasons why Aria was designed in the first
place.

> Sometimes I wonder how far backwards we should expect screenreaders
> to bend when the problem isn't the screen readers in the first place. 

The Web sites need to cooperate by implementing Aria. Apparently, 
libraries of user interface components written in Javascript are increasingly
used by Web site developers these days. If such libraries support Aria, then
content that uses them should be accessible.