aria-brailleroledescription
The global aria-brailleroledescription
attribute defines a human-readable, author-localized abbreviated description for the role of an element intended to be converted into Braille.
Description
Braille is not a one-to-one transliteration of letters and numbers, but rather it includes various abbreviations, contractions, and characters that represent words (known as logograms).
Instead of converting long role descriptions to Braille, the aria-brailleroledescription
attribute allows for providing an abbreviated version of the aria-roledescription
value, which is a human-readable, author-localized description for the role of an element, for improved user experience with Braille interfaces.
Basically, the value of aria-brailleroledescription
is an abbreviated version of the aria-roledescription
attribute to be converted into Braille.
html
<article
aria-roledescription="slide"
aria-brailleroledescription="sld"
aria-labelledby="slide1heading">
<h1 id="slide1heading">Welcome to my talk</h1>
<img alt="Me" src="images/me.jpg" />
</article>
Most assistive technologies, like screen readers, will read the above as "slide, welcome to by talk. Image, Me." Braille assistive technologies will present "sld welcome to my talk gra me" in Braille. The semantic <article>
is given the role of "slide" by the aria-roledescription
attribute; "slide" being a role not defined in the specification, but is a common role for slides in a presentation. In Braille, the role is presented as "sld". The "gra" is short for "graphic", which is how the "image" role is shortened in Braille.
The aria-brailleroledescription
attribute should only be used to clarify the purpose of non-interactive container roles like "group" or "region", or to provide a more specific description of a widget in a braille context.
As the aria-brailleroledescription
attribute overrides how assistive technologies localize and express the name of a role in Braille, inappropriate values will prevent users from understanding and interacting with an element on braille interfaces.
Only use aria-brailleroledescription
if aria-roledescription
is present. However, if the aria-roledescription
value works in Braille, the Braille version of the attribute is not needed. In general, aria-brailleroledescription
should only be used in the rare case when a aria-roledescription
is too verbose for Braille.
A few rules to remember:
- Only apply
aria-brailleroledescription
to elements with a valid ARIA role or elements with implicit role semantics. - The
aria-brailleroledescription
, if present, must have a non-empty, none null value that is different from thearia-roledescription
value, which, in turn, is different from the ARIA explicit or role or implicit semantic role. - Avoid using Unicode Braille Patterns. If they must be used, ensure the
aria-brailleroledescription
value contains content other than Unicode Braille Patterns, whitespace, and Braille Pattern dots-0. - Ensure the value is always localized to the document's language.
Warning: If the content is only in Unicode Braille Patterns, the value will not be translated according to the user's preferred translation table.
Note: Do NOT use aria-brailleroledescription
to replicate aria-roledescription
. Only include this attribute when aria-roledescription
does not provide an adequate braille representation.
The aria-brailleroledescription
value will not be exposed to the braille user if:
- The value is empty or contains only whitespace characters or the empty Braille pattern: dots-0 (U+2800).
- The element to which the attribute is applied has an explicit or implicit WAI-ARIA role where
aria-brailleroledescription
is prohibited, including thegeneric
role. - The element to which the attribute is applied does not have a valid
aria-roledescription
.
Note: Test your sites and applications with daily users of assistive technologies, including Braille readers, to ensure your content makes sense in Braille.
Values
<string>
-
The value is a string, an unconstrained value type, that is intended to be converted into Braille
Associated roles
Used in ALL roles (except generic
).
Specifications
Specification |
---|
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) # aria-brailleroledescription |