Valid usage of application mode

[Sean Murphy (seanmmur)]

All,

I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.

As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.



Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
***@cisco.com
Tel: [phone]

Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com

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[Steve Faulkner]

Sean, this may be helpful:

https://w3c.github.io/using-aria/#using-application

--

Regards

SteveF
Current Standards Work @W3C
<http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/03/current-standards-work-at-w3c/>

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role
equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages
this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role
incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole
use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure
by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or
authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by
reply email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-
software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html

[Sean Murphy (seanmmur)]

Steve,

Thanks for the reference. That covers what I know. But I want practical examples when people would use it and why? Over using the native standard way. I can only think of examples when not too.

In the section on Application role, the referenced blog mentions Yahoo mail web client and application mode being used to navigate messages. Even in this example I am not sure if I agree. This is of course based upon not seeing how the UI of the client worked.

[Loading Image...]




Sean Murphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
***@cisco.com<mailto:***@cisco.com>
Tel: [phone]










Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com



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From: Steve Faulkner <***@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 10 July 2018 6:36 PM
To: Sean Murphy (seanmmur) <***@cisco.com>
Cc: w3c WAI List <w3c-wai-***@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Valid usage of application mode

Sean, this may be helpful:

https://w3c.github.io/using-aria/#using-application
--
Regards

SteveF
Current Standards Work @W3C<http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/03/current-standards-work-at-w3c/>

On 10 July 2018 at 09:19, Sean Murphy (seanmmur) <***@cisco.com<mailto:***@cisco.com>> wrote:
All,

I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.

As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.



Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
***@cisco.com<mailto:***@cisco.com>
Tel: [phone]

Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com<http://cisco.com>

Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
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[Bart Simons]

[Taliesin Smith]

Hi Sean,
This is a great question and one we struggled with a lot when we embarked on making our interactive science simulations accessible to students with disabilities.

We use the application role sparingly for creating custom interactions that have no native HTML equivalent. For example, there is no native 4-way drag in HTML, so we use role=“application” to create one. We then provide instructions as implicitly as possible to the user in the design of the simulation on how to operate this custom object. Users often do not know intuitively how to interact with something identified as an “application” or “web application" whereas they do know what to do with things called “checkbox" or “button”.

We have two examples of simulations with this custom 4-way drag, Balloons and Static Electricity and Friction.

We have just published a fully accessible, Balloons and Static Electricity <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/balloons-and-static-electricity>. To experience the simulation’s accessibility layer, you must use the keyboard, or the keyboard with a screen reader. We use the application role to make the balloon freely draggable in 4 directions and freely droppable anywhere.

As background I’ll add that it took a lot of research and trial and error to get this interaction to work well for users across diverse platforms (browsers and screen readers). The balloon as a custom interaction with role=“application" right now is working well for keyboard users and screen reader users.

I’ll also note that a native button launches the custom 4-way drag in this simulation. Initially without the native grab button, screen reader users had trouble interacting with the balloon (grabbing and moving it). With the grab button added, screen reader users found the interaction much more intuitive, but visual keyboard users had trouble grabbing the balloon. We added visual cues to support visual keyboard users and feel we have found an interaction that works well for these two groups.

Things have changed a lot for the application role since our first studies with screen reader users (2015-2016), and since then we have published the 4-way drag interaction without the native grab button in the simulation Friction <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/friction>. Note that Friction is keyboard accessible, but not yet fully described, meaning it is not fully screen reader accessible.

I hope you find these examples of application role useful. I’m looking forward to better support for, “aria-roledescription” to hep describe these custom interactions more clearly to users.

For more information on accessibility and more examples of the simulations we are working on please see our website, https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility/prototypes <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility/prototypes>.

Taliesin

~.~.~
***@colorado.edu
Inclusive Design Researcher
PhET Interactive Simulations
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility>
Physics Department
University of Colorado, Boulder

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html

[Emily Ogle]

Seems like games might be a resource for examples, as custom keystrokes come with the territory. People anticipate having to learn new commands.

Post by Taliesin Smith
Hi Sean,
This is a great question and one we struggled with a lot when we embarked on making our interactive science simulations accessible to students with disabilities.
We use the application role sparingly for creating custom interactions that have no native HTML equivalent. For example, there is no native 4-way drag in HTML, so we use role=“application” to create one. We then provide instructions as implicitly as possible to the user in the design of the simulation on how to operate this custom object. Users often do not know intuitively how to interact with something identified as an “application” or “web application" whereas they do know what to do with things called “checkbox" or “button”.
We have two examples of simulations with this custom 4-way drag, Balloons and Static Electricity and Friction.
We have just published a fully accessible, Balloons and Static Electricity. To experience the simulation’s accessibility layer, you must use the keyboard, or the keyboard with a screen reader. We use the application role to make the balloon freely draggable in 4 directions and freely droppable anywhere.
As background I’ll add that it took a lot of research and trial and error to get this interaction to work well for users across diverse platforms (browsers and screen readers). The balloon as a custom interaction with role=“application" right now is working well for keyboard users and screen reader users.
I’ll also note that a native button launches the custom 4-way drag in this simulation. Initially without the native grab button, screen reader users had trouble interacting with the balloon (grabbing and moving it). With the grab button added, screen reader users found the interaction much more intuitive, but visual keyboard users had trouble grabbing the balloon. We added visual cues to support visual keyboard users and feel we have found an interaction that works well for these two groups.
Things have changed a lot for the application role since our first studies with screen reader users (2015-2016), and since then we have published the 4-way drag interaction without the native grab button in the simulation Friction. Note that Friction is keyboard accessible, but not yet fully described, meaning it is not fully screen reader accessible.
I hope you find these examples of application role useful. I’m looking forward to better support for, “aria-roledescription” to hep describe these custom interactions more clearly to users.
For more information on accessibility and more examples of the simulations we are working on please see our website, https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility/prototypes.
Taliesin
~.~.~
Inclusive Design Researcher
PhET Interactive Simulations
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility
Physics Department
University of Colorado, Boulder

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html

[Taliesin Smith]

Hi Emily,
I agree that games (and interactive simulations) are more likely to have interactions that might require the application role. I’ll add that PhET Simulations are game-like, but not exactly games. They are exploratory interactive learning tools designed to guide learning which seems different than traditional games.
Taliesin

Post by Emily Ogle
Seems like games might be a resource for examples, as custom keystrokes come with the territory. People anticipate having to learn new commands.

Post by Taliesin Smith
Hi Sean,
This is a great question and one we struggled with a lot when we embarked on making our interactive science simulations accessible to students with disabilities.
We use the application role sparingly for creating custom interactions that have no native HTML equivalent. For example, there is no native 4-way drag in HTML, so we use role=“application” to create one. We then provide instructions as implicitly as possible to the user in the design of the simulation on how to operate this custom object. Users often do not know intuitively how to interact with something identified as an “application” or “web application" whereas they do know what to do with things called “checkbox" or “button”.
We have two examples of simulations with this custom 4-way drag, Balloons and Static Electricity and Friction.
We have just published a fully accessible, Balloons and Static Electricity <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/balloons-and-static-electricity>. To experience the simulation’s accessibility layer, you must use the keyboard, or the keyboard with a screen reader. We use the application role to make the balloon freely draggable in 4 directions and freely droppable anywhere.
As background I’ll add that it took a lot of research and trial and error to get this interaction to work well for users across diverse platforms (browsers and screen readers). The balloon as a custom interaction with role=“application" right now is working well for keyboard users and screen reader users.
I’ll also note that a native button launches the custom 4-way drag in this simulation. Initially without the native grab button, screen reader users had trouble interacting with the balloon (grabbing and moving it). With the grab button added, screen reader users found the interaction much more intuitive, but visual keyboard users had trouble grabbing the balloon. We added visual cues to support visual keyboard users and feel we have found an interaction that works well for these two groups.
Things have changed a lot for the application role since our first studies with screen reader users (2015-2016), and since then we have published the 4-way drag interaction without the native grab button in the simulation Friction <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/friction>. Note that Friction is keyboard accessible, but not yet fully described, meaning it is not fully screen reader accessible.
I hope you find these examples of application role useful. I’m looking forward to better support for, “aria-roledescription” to hep describe these custom interactions more clearly to users.
For more information on accessibility and more examples of the simulations we are working on please see our website, https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility/prototypes <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility/prototypes>.
Taliesin
~.~.~
Inclusive Design Researcher
PhET Interactive Simulations
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility>
Physics Department
University of Colorado, Boulder

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com <http://cisco.com/>
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html <http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html>

[Taliesin Smith]

Hi Sean,
I agree that interactive simulations (and games) are unique user interfaces. However, PhET simulations (and many games) run in a browser these days. ARIA role application, thus allows web authors to design very custom interactions for very unique circumstances such as these. There are very few other reasons to actually use it.

The interesting thing about PhET Simulations is that their visual representation is completely inaccessible to AT (rendered solely with visual technologies such as canvas, SVG and/or webGL). As you likely know, these visual technologies are pretty much a black box to assistive technology (AT). It is through our Parallel DOM where we render the same sim in parallel (in native HTML) that we make the sim accessible to AT. Users of AT interact with the sim’s HTML in familiar ways much like they would interact with a typical web page.

ARIA role application allowed us to make one custom interaction (the balloon) while everything else in the sim is coded as native HTML elements and interactions.

When done right, ARIA role application can be very useful and powerful, and as others have written the use cases are few and far between, and web authors must be sure to implement it correctly and completely.

In fact, all complex widget interactions are tricky to implement. More examples of these complex interactions are greatly needed - whether part of a typical web page, or part of a specialized interface such as our interactive science simulations.

Taliesin

Everyone,
Thank you for the responses to this question. In essence the valid usage that have been demonstrated in this thread are all very specialised user interfaces.
<image001.png>
Sean Murphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com <http://cisco.com/>
<image002.gif>
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Sent: Wednesday, 11 July 2018 5:58 AM
Subject: Re: Valid usage of application mode
Hi Sean,
Steve’s section on application role in the Using ARIA document is spot-on, as you probably know.
When working on Balloons and Static Electricity we tried everything possible in HTML to create a 4-way draggable balloon, and found application role was the only thing that could do it.
Have you tried either of the simulations that I shared? I think they are very practical examples for when application role is required.
Taliesin
Hi Sean,
This is a great question and one we struggled with a lot when we embarked on making our interactive science simulations accessible to students with disabilities.
We use the application role sparingly for creating custom interactions that have no native HTML equivalent. For example, there is no native 4-way drag in HTML, so we use role=“application” to create one. We then provide instructions as implicitly as possible to the user in the design of the simulation on how to operate this custom object. Users often do not know intuitively how to interact with something identified as an “application” or “web application" whereas they do know what to do with things called “checkbox" or “button”.
We have two examples of simulations with this custom 4-way drag, Balloons and Static Electricity and Friction.
We have just published a fully accessible, Balloons and Static Electricity <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/balloons-and-static-electricity>. To experience the simulation’s accessibility layer, you must use the keyboard, or the keyboard with a screen reader. We use the application role to make the balloon freely draggable in 4 directions and freely droppable anywhere.
As background I’ll add that it took a lot of research and trial and error to get this interaction to work well for users across diverse platforms (browsers and screen readers). The balloon as a custom interaction with role=“application" right now is working well for keyboard users and screen reader users.
I’ll also note that a native button launches the custom 4-way drag in this simulation. Initially without the native grab button, screen reader users had trouble interacting with the balloon (grabbing and moving it). With the grab button added, screen reader users found the interaction much more intuitive, but visual keyboard users had trouble grabbing the balloon. We added visual cues to support visual keyboard users and feel we have found an interaction that works well for these two groups.
Things have changed a lot for the application role since our first studies with screen reader users (2015-2016), and since then we have published the 4-way drag interaction without the native grab button in the simulation Friction <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/friction>. Note that Friction is keyboard accessible, but not yet fully described, meaning it is not fully screen reader accessible.
I hope you find these examples of application role useful. I’m looking forward to better support for, “aria-roledescription” to hep describe these custom interactions more clearly to users.
For more information on accessibility and more examples of the simulations we are working on please see our website, https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility/prototypes <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility/prototypes>.
Taliesin
~.~.~
Inclusive Design Researcher
PhET Interactive Simulations
https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility <https://phet.colorado.edu/en/accessibility>
Physics Department
University of Colorado, Boulder
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com <http://cisco.com/>
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html

[Mohith BP]

Hi Sean,

As discussed in WAI ARIA usually role application is used to pass the
keystrokes directly to the browser instead of intercepted by the
screen readers.

Few examples are:
1. Calendar widget where you need to provide 2d arrow key navigation.
2. At times for custom controls if the engineers have not coded Java
Script properly, when screen reader is on Enter / spacebar does not
activate the custom element. Instead of fixing the issue few people
tend to use role application which is not right practice.

Thanks & Regards,
Mohith B. P.

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when role
equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of webpages
this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role
incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use
of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by
others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or
authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply
email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html

[Sean Murphy (seanmmur)]

Mohith

I would thought the use of a grid would have address the use of using arrow keys in a calendar. As you could associate an javascript keyboard event to the grid removing the need of application mode.

The 2nd point is something I see to often and developers need to address that issue. :-)

Using an application role to get around poor coding is not a good practice as you have already outline.

Sean Murphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
***@cisco.com
Tel: [phone]

Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com

Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
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-----Original Message-----
From: Mohith BP <***@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 11 July 2018 3:13 PM
To: Sean Murphy (seanmmur) <***@cisco.com>
Cc: w3c WAI List <w3c-wai-***@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Valid usage of application mode

Hi Sean,

As discussed in WAI ARIA usually role application is used to pass the keystrokes directly to the browser instead of intercepted by the screen readers.

Few examples are:
1. Calendar widget where you need to provide 2d arrow key navigation.
2. At times for custom controls if the engineers have not coded Java Script properly, when screen reader is on Enter / spacebar does not activate the custom element. Instead of fixing the issue few people tend to use role application which is not right practice.

Thanks & Regards,
Mohith B. P.

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when
role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of
webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role
incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the
sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or
disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the
intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient),
please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-a
greement/c

[Matt King]

Sean, you are right on both points ... As author of the changes made to the application role for ARIA 1.1, I'm very glad to see that people are really starting to understand both the significant risks and occasionally important benefits of using it. With broadly improved understanding, I hope we will see less and less incorrect and damaging useage.

I like this discussion. I am saving some of it for ideas for the ARIA Authoring Practices. It's hard to come up with really understandable application role examples for the APG.

Matt King

-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Murphy (seanmmur) <***@cisco.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 10, 2018 10:17 PM
To: Mohith BP <***@gmail.com>
Cc: w3c WAI List <w3c-wai-***@w3.org>
Subject: RE: Valid usage of application mode

Mohith

I would thought the use of a grid would have address the use of using arrow keys in a calendar. As you could associate an javascript keyboard event to the grid removing the need of application mode.

The 2nd point is something I see to often and developers need to address that issue. :-)

Using an application role to get around poor coding is not a good practice as you have already outline.

Sean Murphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
***@cisco.com
Tel: [phone]

Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com

Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient), please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/terms-sale-software-license-agreement/company-registration-information.html

-----Original Message-----
From: Mohith BP <***@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, 11 July 2018 3:13 PM
To: Sean Murphy (seanmmur) <***@cisco.com>
Cc: w3c WAI List <w3c-wai-***@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Valid usage of application mode

Hi Sean,

As discussed in WAI ARIA usually role application is used to pass the keystrokes directly to the browser instead of intercepted by the screen readers.

Few examples are:
1. Calendar widget where you need to provide 2d arrow key navigation.
2. At times for custom controls if the engineers have not coded Java Script properly, when screen reader is on Enter / spacebar does not activate the custom element. Instead of fixing the issue few people tend to use role application which is not right practice.

Thanks & Regards,
Mohith B. P.

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when
role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of
webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role
incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
Think before you print.
This email may contain confidential and privileged material for the
sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, use, distribution or
disclosure by others is strictly prohibited. If you are not the
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[Mohith BP]

Hi Sean,

You are right if role grid is used there is no need for using role application.
However, if the dates are displayed without role grid like the example
below then it requires role application.
http://whatsock.com/tsg/Coding%20Arena/ARIA%20Date%20Pickers/ARIA%20Date%20Picker%20(Basic)/demo.htm


Thanks & Regards,
Mohith B. P.

Post by Mohith BP
Mohith
I would thought the use of a grid would have address the use of using arrow
keys in a calendar. As you could associate an javascript keyboard event to
the grid removing the need of application mode.
The 2nd point is something I see to often and developers need to address that issue. :-)
Using an application role to get around poor coding is not a good practice
as you have already outline.
Sean Murphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
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-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, 11 July 2018 3:13 PM
Subject: Re: Valid usage of application mode
Hi Sean,
As discussed in WAI ARIA usually role application is used to pass the
keystrokes directly to the browser instead of intercepted by the screen
readers.
1. Calendar widget where you need to provide 2d arrow key navigation.
2. At times for custom controls if the engineers have not coded Java Script
properly, when screen reader is on Enter / spacebar does not activate the
custom element. Instead of fixing the issue few people tend to use role
application which is not right practice.
Thanks & Regards,
Mohith B. P.

Post by Sean Murphy (seanmmur)
All,
I'm very interested in finding out people's opinions on when or when
role equals quote application quote should be used. What examples of
webpages this is a valid usage or areas of the web UI.
As I'm finding more and more webpages are using application role
incorrectly. For example people using application in dialogues, forms, ETC.
Sean M thisurphy
SR ENGINEER.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Tel: [phone]
Cisco Systems, Inc.
The Forum 201 Pacific Highway
ST LEONARDS
2065
Australia
cisco.com
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