ARIA Landmark Roles were recently added to the Web Axe web site. It’s a great and easy way to add better accessibility to your site, start learning ARIA, and future-proof your site. And it only takes a few minutes, so why not add it into your site? (If you haven’t already!)
An ARIA landmark role is simple an attribute added to a (probably) already existing tag in your site. For example, to add a search role, simple add the attribute role="search"
to the tag which contains the search content (the div, fieldset, etc).
Here are some basic landmark roles with links to the W3C definitions:
- banner – usually the main header of your site; the area with logo, slogan, etc.
- complementary – supporting section of page, separate from the main content, like a sidebar.
- contentinfo – area that contains information about the site such as copyright lines and links to privacy notices (i.e. page footer).
- main – the main content; area with central topic of the web page.
- navigation – a section for navigating the site.
- search – a section with a any type of search tool.
In the following example, four landmark roles are used to create a basic page structure.
[header content]
[main content]
[footer content]
Addendum
If more than one type of role is implemented, use the aria-labelledby attribute to give each a unique name. Here’s an example from this web page which has two navigation role attributes.
Dennis and Ross review a few excellent web sites. Each provides great accessibility as well as being standards-compliant.
Download Web Axe Episode 80 (Web Accessibility Successes)
Announcements
- Ross’ relaunch of 3.7 Designs
- Assistive Technology Boogie (Flash) by Inclusive Technologies
- Volunteers/donations wanted for transcribing Web Axe podcasts
- CSUN was great! A few of the many folks Dennis met and hung out with:
- Future Midwest Detroit
News & Articles
- iPad releases — accessibility
- HTML5 + Quake
- Canvas element is powerful, also huge accessibility concern
- When ever you use :hover, also use :focus
- Microsoft offers UK users a choice in browser
- Hat tip to all the techie 2010 April Fools Day jokers!
Main Segment
Testco
- In 2001, a new easy-access version of Tesco.com was launched, making the online shopping service available to a higher number of customers. In 2002-3, the web-based business made a profit of £12.2 million, more than 30 times that made in the previous year.
- Reference: 3 case studies on Universal Design.
Sydney For All
- Won 2009 Vision Australia award for web site accessibility.
LF Legal
- Developed by Mike Cherim
- Article on 2-year Anniversary
- Built on WordPress!
If you missed it from Twitter a month-and-a-half ago, Steve Grobschmidt (@AquinasWI) published an interview with accessibility expert Jennison Asuncion (@Jennison) in a 3-part series. It’s published on Steve’s blog “the art of web accessibility”. I recommend reading the interview as well as checking out Steve’s blog. Both Steve and Jennison are excellent contributors to the web accessibility community.
- Jennison Interview – Part 1
- Jennison Interview – Part 2
- Jennison Interview – Part 3
- You can also find Jennison on LinkedIn.