2 ms·

I wonder if at any point browsers will offer a low level accessibility API for you to manually describe components. I’ve worked in the web for years and I’m a b

I wonder if at any point browsers will offer a low level accessibility API for you to manually describe components. I’ve worked in the web for years and I’m a big believer but it’s also indisputable that Canvas offers more performant UI rendering than HTML when done correctly. I don’t think it should ever be used for web “documents” but web apps already bastardize HTML and CSS to achieve their aims anyway. Accessibility remains the missing component.

shakna 1y ago
As far as standards is concerned, that API is ARIA [0]. W3C already offers guides for accessibility and canvas. But no one who opts for canvas turns around and remembers to do their landmarks.
- afavour 1y ago
  Then I’m showing my ignorance… how do you add ARIA landmarks to Canvas elements?
  - kg 1y ago
    You would create transparent DOM elements in the right places with the right ARIA attributes and content, I suspect.
    - afavour 1y ago
      I guess that’s what I’d like to see a better API for, then. Mapping on click events for invisible elements feels like a hack.
      - pmontra 1y ago
        It's HTML imagemaps from the 90s, when we could not style buttons and navbars where GIFs with links in the right places. Browsers still have the code to render them. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/map https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/... https://caniuse.com/mdn-html_elements_map https://caniuse.com/mdn-html_elements_map
      - MrGilbert 1y ago
        OTH, we are still failing to provide a bare minimum for accessibility. Heck, we even needed a law (in the EU, that than needed to be translated to national law), so that companies providing crucial end user services would care about accessibility.
    - thayne 1y ago
      That's possible. But it is difficult to get right, and can have poor performance if you you have many such elements.
- zigzag312 1y ago
  > But no one who opts for canvas turns around and remembers to do their landmarks. Not completely true. Flutter has been adding some accessibility for web canvas target. [1] I think Avalonia is in in the make it work phase. Accessibility will probably be added in the make it right phase. [1] https://docs.flutter.dev/ui/accessibility/web-accessibility https://docs.flutter.dev/ui/accessibility/web-accessibility
troupo 1y ago
> I wonder if at any point browsers will offer a low level accessibility API for you to manually describe components Accessibility Object Model: https://wicg.github.io/aom/spec/ https://wicg.github.io/aom/spec/ It's very slowly coming together, but it won't be rone for many years yet. Especially since what you want is Phase 3.

shakna 1y ago

As far as standards is concerned, that API is ARIA [0]. W3C already offers guides for accessibility and canvas. But no one who opts for canvas turns around and remembers to do their landmarks.

afavour 1y ago
Then I’m showing my ignorance… how do you add ARIA landmarks to Canvas elements?
- kg 1y ago
  You would create transparent DOM elements in the right places with the right ARIA attributes and content, I suspect.
  - afavour 1y ago
    I guess that’s what I’d like to see a better API for, then. Mapping on click events for invisible elements feels like a hack.
    - pmontra 1y ago
      It's HTML imagemaps from the 90s, when we could not style buttons and navbars where GIFs with links in the right places. Browsers still have the code to render them. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/Elements/map https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Reference/... https://caniuse.com/mdn-html_elements_map https://caniuse.com/mdn-html_elements_map
    - MrGilbert 1y ago
      OTH, we are still failing to provide a bare minimum for accessibility. Heck, we even needed a law (in the EU, that than needed to be translated to national law), so that companies providing crucial end user services would care about accessibility.
  - thayne 1y ago
    That's possible. But it is difficult to get right, and can have poor performance if you you have many such elements.
zigzag312 1y ago
> But no one who opts for canvas turns around and remembers to do their landmarks. Not completely true. Flutter has been adding some accessibility for web canvas target. [1] I think Avalonia is in in the make it work phase. Accessibility will probably be added in the make it right phase. [1] https://docs.flutter.dev/ui/accessibility/web-accessibility https://docs.flutter.dev/ui/accessibility/web-accessibility

troupo 1y ago

> I wonder if at any point browsers will offer a low level accessibility API for you to manually describe components Accessibility Object Model: https://wicg.github.io/aom/spec/ https://wicg.github.io/aom/spec/ It's very slowly coming together, but it won't be rone for many years yet. Especially since what you want is Phase 3.