Intent to Prototype: ARIA virtual content

[Benjamin Beaudry]

Contact emails

benjamin...@microsoft.com, kbab...@microsoft.com

Explainer

https://github.com/WICG/accessible-loading-and-searching-of-content/blob/master/explainer.md

Specification

None

Summary

Implement the aria-virtualcontent attribute. This attribute will allow web developers to signal to assistive technologies (ATs) that more content will be revealed if the user scrolls the page.

Blink component

Blink>Accessibility

Motivation

The purpose of aria-virtualcontent is to enable screen readers to experiment with solutions to make virtualized content accessible. Without this, an "infinite feed" - such as Twitter's that loads more new content every time the user scrolls to the bottom of the page - is poorly accessible. The content loaded once we reach the bottom of the page - called virtualized content - remains mostly inaccessible for assistive technology users. Web developers currently don't have a clear way to avoid this problem - thus this proposal.

Initial public proposal

None

TAG review

None

TAG review status

Pending

Risks

Interoperability and Compatibility

None

Gecko: No signal

Edge: No signal

WebKit: No signal

Web developers: Mixed signals

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?

No

Tracking bug

https://crbug.com/1168723

Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

https://chromestatus.com/feature/5665065770418176

This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status.

[Thomas Steiner]

Hi Benjamin,

 

Web developers: Mixed signals

Since above you wrote "Web developers currently don't have a clear way to avoid this problem" I'm surprised to learn that there are "mixed" signals from developers. Could you link to them? To me, having a means of communicating to users of assistive technology that more virtualized content is coming sounds essential. 

Cheers,

Tom

—

PS: For context, I have recently proposed a formalization of the developers signal. 

[Benjamin Beaudry]

Hi Thomas,

Here's the link to the mixed signals:  https://github.com/WICG/accessible-loading-and-searching-of-content/issues.

I agree with you that we need a way to overcome this accessibility constraint - it's also the general sentiment of the community. The concerns expressed in the link above are about the specifics of the proposed solution rather than the solution itself.

Cheers,

Ben

---

From: Thomas Steiner <to...@google.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 5:25 AM
To: Benjamin Beaudry <Benjamin...@microsoft.com>
Cc: blin...@chromium.org <blin...@chromium.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [blink-dev] Intent to Prototype: ARIA virtual content