The Graphics Accessibility API Mappings defines how user agents map the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module [GRAPHICS-ARIA-1.0] markup to platform accessibility APIs. It is intended for user agent developers responsible for accessibility in their user agent so that they can support the accessibility of graphics such as that created for [SVG] or [HTML52].
The implementation of this specification in user agents enables authors to produce more accessible graphics
by conveying common graphics semantics to assistive technologies.
It provides Accessibility API Mapping guidance for the roles defined in the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module [GRAPHICS-ARIA-1.0].
The Graphics Accessibility API Mappings is part of the
WAI-ARIA suite
described in the WAI-ARIA Overview.
Status of This Document
This section describes the status of this
document at the time of its publication. A list of current W3C
publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found
in the W3C technical reports index at
https://www.w3.org/TR/.
Feedback on any aspect of the specification is accepted. For this publication, the SVG Accessibility Task Force particularly seeks feedback on the following questions:
Are mappings of graphics features clear and appropriate?
Do the platform API mappings appropriately reflect the semantics defined for these roles in the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module?
Publication as an Editor's Draft does not
imply endorsement by W3C and its Members.
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.
This document was produced by a group
operating under the
W3C Patent
Policy.
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.
The Graphics Accessibility API Mappings specification provides role mappings
for the roles in the WAI-ARIA Graphics Module [GRAPHICS-ARIA-1.0].
For web documents and applications,
the essential semantic information is encapsulated
within the Document Object Model (DOM).
Assistive technologies obtain this information from the user agent,
which maps elements and attributes
to the platform Accessibility API.
The original suite of element semantics defined by
WAI-ARIA 1.0
only considered graphics as individual embedded images,
with no interactivity or meaningful semantic structure.
It was therefore not sufficient for communicating complex graphics,
such as labelled diagrams or data charts,
or for interactive graphics.
The WAI-ARIA Graphics Module defines a core set of three roles
that can convey the structure of a graphic.
This specification defines how user agents should expose those roles
to the accessibility APIs currently in use,
so that the semantic information is available to assistive technologies that use those APIs.
For an introduction to WAI-ARIA,
see the WAI-ARIA Overview.
It is part of a set of resources that define and support
the WAI-ARIA specification,
including the following documents:
WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices Guide [WAI-ARIA-PRACTICES-1.1],
a planned W3C Working Group Note,
which describes how web content developers can develop
accessible rich internet applications using WAI-ARIA.
It provides detailed advice and examples
directed primarily to web application developers,
yet also useful to developers of user agents and assistive technologies.
2. Conformance
As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.
The key words MAY, MUST, MUST NOT, OPTIONAL, RECOMMENDED, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, and SHOULD in this document
are to be interpreted as described in
BCP 14
[RFC2119] [RFC8174]
when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.
2.1 Conformance
The main content of this specification is normative and defines requirements that impact conformance claims. Introductory material, appendices, sections marked as "non-normative" and their subsections, diagrams, examples, and notes are informative (non-normative). Non-normative material provides advisory information to help interpret the guidelines but does not create requirements that impact a conformance claim.
Normative sections provide requirements that user agents must follow for an implementation to conform to this specification. The keywords MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL in this document are to be interpreted as described in Keywords for use in RFCs to indicate requirement levels [RFC2119]. RFC-2119 keywords are formatted in uppercase and contained in an element with class="rfc2119". When the keywords shown above are used, but do not share this format, they do not convey formal information in the RFC 2119 sense, and are merely explanatory, i.e., informative. As much as possible, such usages are avoided in this specification.
Normative sections provide requirements that authors, user agents and assistive technologies MUST follow for an implementation to conform to this specification.
Non-normative (informative) sections provide information useful to understanding the specification. Such sections may contain examples of recommended practice, but it is not required to follow such recommendations in order to conform to this specification.
Platform accessibility APIs traditionally have had a finite set of predefined roles that are expected by assistive technologies on that platform and only one or two roles may be exposed. In contrast, WAI-ARIA allows multiple roles to be specified as an ordered set of space-separated valid role tokens. The additional roles are fallback roles similar to the concept of specifying multiple fonts in case the first choice font type is not supported.
6.1 General Rules
User agents MUST conform to the Role Mapping General Rules accessibility API computational requirements in [CORE-AAM-1.1].
6.2 Role Mapping Table
This section defines how roles in graphics map to platform accessibility APIs based on their native host language semantics and when WAI-ARIA roles are applied. This section refers directly to the Core Accessibility API Mappings specification.
B.1 Participants active in the SVG accessibility task force at the time of publication
Amelia Bellamy-Royds (Invited expert)
Fred Esch (IBM Corporation)
Charles McCathieNevile (Yandex)
Charu Pandhi (IBM Corporation)
Doug Schepers (W3C Staff)
Richard Schwerdtfeger (Knowbility)
Léonie Watson (The Paciello Group)
Jason White (Educational Testing Service)
B.2 Participants active in the ARIA WG at the time of publication
David Bolter (Mozilla Foundation)
Michael Cooper (W3C/MIT)
James Craig (Apple Inc.)
Joanmarie Diggs (Igalia)
John Foliot (Invited Expert)
Christopher Gallelo (Microsoft Corporation)
Bryan Garaventa (SSB BART Group)
Jon Gunderson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Matthew King (IBM Corporation)
Dominic Mazzoni (Google, Inc.)
Shane McCarron (Invited Expert, Aptest)
James Nurthen (Oracle Corporation)
Janina Sajka (Invited Expert, The Linux Foundation)
Stefan Schnabel (SAP AG)
Lisa Seeman (Invited Expert)
Alexander Surkov (Mozilla Foundation)
Jason White (Educational Testing Service)
B.3 Enabling funders
This publication has been funded in part with U.S. Federal funds from the Department of Education, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), initially under contract number ED-OSE-10-C-0067, then under contract number HHSP23301500054C, and now under HHS75P00120P00168. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
HTML 5.2. Steve Faulkner; Arron Eicholz; Travis Leithead; Alex Danilo; Sangwhan Moon. W3C. 28 January 2021. W3C Recommendation. URL: https://www.w3.org/TR/html52/