[Webkit-unassigned] [Bug 260641] New: AX: intent to remove non-standard role=text feature

[bugzilla-daemon at webkit.org]

https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=260641

            Bug ID: 260641
           Summary: AX: intent to remove non-standard role=text feature
           Product: WebKit
           Version: WebKit Nightly Build
          Hardware: All
                OS: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: Normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: Accessibility
          Assignee: webkit-unassigned at lists.webkit.org
          Reporter: jcraig at apple.com
                CC: andresg_22 at apple.com,
                    webkit-bug-importer at group.apple.com

AX: Consider dropping role=text (non-standard, WebKit-only implementation, that the ARIA WG declined to specify)

WebKit's role=text was never in a shipping version of ARIA, and WebKit's implementation pre-dated any spec discussion. Once the feature was discussed, the ARIA Working Group had a variety of concerns and declined to adopt it. As far as I know, it has never shipped in any other engine.

1. The original use case (workaround) is no longer used in a high-profile product. (That product was the reason we couldn't originally drop support when ARIA declined to standardize it.) 
2. The implementation makes any interactive descendants entirely inaccessible, which is often not the intention of authors, and unknown to them when they don’t test in VoiceOver, etc. This could potentially be fixed, but we think the fix is riskier and has a higher performance cost than dropping support.
3. There are other, standard ways to achieve combined content label... The primary benefit of WebKit's `role=text` implementation.
4. There are some sites still using it, mostly due to legacy support of a jQuery Ratings widget, but we don't believe removing this support will break anything... A VO user might just hear a slightly more verbose label in places.


So it seems like the right time for WebKit to drop support for the non-standard `role=text` feature.

Current plan-of-record is to leave support behind a deselected runtime flag... Providing a temporary user workaround in case some high-traffic site is relying on this for some reason.

I'm posting this intent-to-remove-non-standard-text-role here so we can shop the idea around, in case others have concerns.

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