Skip to content

Clarify details documentation for a11y and usage #9899

@scottaohara

Description

@scottaohara

What is the issue with the HTML Standard?

With the merging of #9400 the topics raised about how to identify / expose the grouping of details elements for acessibility wasn't really resolved. The note "keeping related elements together can be important for accessibility" dosen't do much in the description of why, or how. For example, the prior sentence indicating one could use the section element won't actually do anything to help expose this grouping to ATs, without additional guidnace.

Additionally, it may also be worth pulling in guidance similar to the following note about dialogs:

As with all HTML elements, it is not conforming to use the dialog element when attempting to represent another type of control. For example, context menus, tooltips, and popup listboxes are not dialog boxes, so abusing the dialog element to implement these patterns is incorrect.

For instance, the hidden until found behavior of details/summary can be quite useful if looking for specific content within a web page. But, say if someone were to use these elements to create custom UI components, similar to those listed in the dialog note, or even simply as a means to create an accordion of links within a navigation, such details content could be unexpectedly revealed as a user searched for a term or phrase in the primary content of the page.

I can work on a PR to address the topics I raised.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    a11y-trackerGroup bringing to attention of a11y, or tracked by the a11y Group but not needing response.accessibilityAffects accessibility

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

    Milestone

    No milestone

    Relationships

    None yet

    Development

    No branches or pull requests

    Issue actions