XHTML Role Attribute Module (original) (raw)

W3C

A module to support role classification of elements

W3C Working Draft 25 July 2006

This version:

http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-xhtml-role-20060725

Latest version:

http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-role

Editors:

Mark Birbeck, x-port.net Ltd.

Shane McCarron, Applied Testing and Technology, Inc.

Steven Pemberton, CWI/W3C®

T. V. Raman, Google, Inc.

Richard Schwerdtfeger, IBM Corporation

This document is also available in these non-normative formats: PostScript version, PDF version, ZIP archive, and Gzip'd TAR archive.

The English version of this specification is the only normative version. Non-normative translations may also be available.

Copyright © 2006 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply.

Abstract

The XHTML Role Attribute defined in this specification provides XML languages with the ability integrate a "role" attribute into any markup language based upon [XHTMLMOD].

Status of This Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

This document is a First Public Working Draft, but is nearly complete. It is based upon work done in the definition of [XHTML2], and is therefore relatively mature.

This document has been produced by the W3C HTML Working Group (Members only) as part of the HTML Activity. The goals of the HTML Working Group are discussed in the HTML Working Group charter.

This document was produced by a group operating under the 24 January 2002 CPP as amended by the W3C Patent Policy Transition Procedure. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.

Publication as a Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.

Please report errors in this specification to www-html-editor@w3.org (archive). It is inappropriate to send discussion email to this address. Public discussion may take place on www-html@w3.org (archive).

Table of Contents

1.Introduction

This section is informative.

This document is the first of a series of XHTML modules designed to be used to help extend the scope of XHTML-family markup languages into new environments. It has been developed in conjunction with the accessibility community and other groups to make it easier to describe the semantic meaning of XHTML-family document content.

Note that this work was originally done as part of the [XHTML2] activity. It is being released in a separate, stand-alone module in order to speed its adoption and ease the migration to XHTML 2 when that is released.

2.Conformance Requirements

This section is normative.

The keywords "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

2.1.Document Conformance

XHTML Role Attribute Module is not a stand-alone document type. It is intended to be integrated into other host languages such as XHTML. A conforming XHTML Role Attribute Module document is a document that requires only the facilities described as mandatory in this specification and the facilities described as mandatory in its host language. Such a document MUST meet all the following criteria:

  1. The document MUST conform to the constraints expressed in Appendix A - DTD Implementation, combined with the constraints expressed in its host language implementation.
  2. If the host language does not incorporate the XHTML Role Attribute Module attribute into its own namespace, the document MUST contain an xmlns declaration for the XHTML Role Attribute Module namespace [XMLNAMES]. The namespace for XHTML Role Attribute Module is defined to be http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml. An example start tag of a root element might look like:

2.2.Host Language Conformance

When the XHTML Role Attribute Module is included in a host language, all of the facilities required in this specification MUST be included in the host language. In addition, the attribute defined in this specification MUST be included in the content model of the host language.

2.3.User Agent Conformance

A conforming user agent must support all of the features required in this specification.

3.The XHTML Role Attribute

This section is normative.

This specification defines the XHTML Role Attribute Module. The XHTML Role Attribute Module uses the XML namespace [XMLNAMES] identifier http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml.

The role attribute takes as its value one or more white-space separated QNames. The attribute describes the role(s) the current element plays in the context of the document. It is used by applications and assistive technologies to determine the purpose of UI widgets. In the case of a web page it may be declarative as a function of particular elements or it may be an attribute which is configurable by the page author. Additionally, role information may be used to define each action which may be performed on an element. This allows a user to make informed decisions on which actions may be taken on an element and activate the selected action in a device independent way.

It is possible to define additional role values. Such values MUST be defined in their own namespace. Note that current best practice is that the URI associated with that namespace resolve to a resource that allows for the discovery of the definition of the roles in the namespace. Example definitions include the RDF Schema for the XHTML role attribute values in Appendix B, and the Web Accessibility Initiative's work on an RDF Taxonomy [WAIRDF].

Authors may use the following relationship names, listed here with their conventional interpretations. User agents, search engines, etc. may interpret these relationships in a variety of ways. For example, user agents may provide access to linked documents through a navigation bar.

The following attribute values are designed to define pertinent parts of a document for the purpose of accessibility. User agents may incorporate device equivalents, such as key mappings in the case of a desktop user agent, to navigate to these sections of a document.

main

This defines the main content of a document.

secondary

This is any unique section of the document. In the case of a portal, this may include but not be limited to: show times; current weather; or stocks to watch.

navigation

This is the navigation bar on a web document. This is typically a list of links to other pages on the site or other areas of the same document.

banner

A banner is usually defined as the advertisement at the top of a web page. The banner content typically contains the site or company logo and other key advertisements for the site.

contentinfo

This is information about the content on the page. For example, footnotes, copyrights, links to privacy statements, etc. would belong here.

note

The content is parenthetic or ancillary to the main content of the resource.

seealso

Indicates that the element contains content that is related to the main content of the page.

search

This is the search section of a web document. This is typically a form used to submit search requests about the site or a more general Internet wide search service.

A.DTD Implementation

This appendix is normative.

The DTD implementation of XHTML Role Attribute Module conforms to the requirements defined in [XHTMLMOD]. Consequently, it provides a Qualified Names sub-module, and a module file for the XHTML Role Attribute Module module defined in this Proposed Recommendation.

A.1.Qualified Names Module

Note that this module defines the parameter entity %xhtml-role-attrs.qname;. This entity is intended to be used in the attribute lists of elements in any host language that permits the use of event attributes on elements in its own namespace. In this case the Host Language driver should set a parameter entity %XHTML-ROLE.prefixed; to INCLUDE and a parameter entity %XHTML-ROLE.prefix; to a value that is the prefix for the XHTML Role Attribute Module attributes.

<![%XHTML-ROLE.prefixed;[ ]]>

%xhtml-role-qname-extra.mod;

A.2.XHTML Role Attribute Module

B.RDF Schema

This section is informative

This section will contain an example RDF specification for the roles that are defined in this document.

C.References

This appendix is normative.

C.1.Normative References

[RFC2119]

"Key words for use in RFCs to indicate requirement levels", RFC 2119, S. Bradner, March 1997.
Available at: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt

[XMLNAMES]

"Namespaces in XML", W3C Recommendation, T. Bray et al., eds., 14 January 1999.
Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xml-names-19990114
The latest version is available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names

C.2.Other References

[WAIRDF]

"Role Taxonomy for Accessible Adaptable Applications". L. Seeman, 8 May 2006.
Available at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/GUI/roleTaxonomy-20060508.html
The latest version is available at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/PF/GUI/

[XHTML]

"XHTML™ 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition)". S. Pemberton et al., 26 January 2000, revised 1 August 2002.
Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/REC-xhtml1-20020801
The latest version is available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1

[XHTML2]

"XHTML™ 2.0". J. Axelsson et al., 27 May 2005.
Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-xhtml2-20050527
The latest version is available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml2

[XHTMLMOD]

"Modularization of XHTML™ 1.1", W3C Proposed Recommendation, D. Austin et al., eds., 13 February 2006.
Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/PR-xhtml-modularization-20060213
The latest version is available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-modularization

D.Acknowledgments

This section is informative.

At the time of publication, the participants in the W3C HTML Working Group were: