Add transparent generic definition and update accessibility parent and child defs #2599

smhigley · 2025-08-14T16:41:16Z

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Updates the accessibility parent/child relationships to reference "transparent" elements rather than simply generics or role="none/presentation". Transparent is defined based on the language in the previous section (including elements in the a11y tree), and I added an explicit reference to live regions in the examples of semantics that cause an accessibility event.

Test, Documentation and Implementation tracking

Once this PR has been reviewed and has consensus from the working group, tests should be written and issues should be opened on browsers. Add N/A and check when not applicable.

"author MUST" tests: N/A
"user agent MUST" tests: N/A
Browser implementations (link to issue or commit):
- WebKit: n/a
- Gecko: n/a
- Blink: n/a
ACT review?
Does this need AT implementations? no
Related APG Issue/PR: N/A
MDN Issue/PR: N/A

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…d child to reference it

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Pull Request Overview

This PR introduces a formal definition for "transparent elements" and updates accessibility parent/child relationship definitions to use this new terminology instead of the previous ad-hoc references to generic or none/presentation roles. The change clarifies which elements should be ignored when determining accessibility tree relationships.

Adds a formal definition of "transparent elements" that includes both presentation/none roles and generic elements without accessibility-relevant attributes
Updates all references to accessibility parent/child relationships to use the new transparent element definition
Adds live region roles/attributes as an example of semantics that cause accessibility events

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smhigley · 2025-08-14T17:17:24Z

index.html

            <ul>
              <li>Elements that are currently focused, even if the element or one of its ancestor elements has its <sref>aria-hidden</sref> attribute set to <code>true</code>.</li>
              <li>Elements that are a valid target of an <pref>aria-activedescendant</pref> attribute.</li>
+              <li>Elements that have <a>live region</a> roles or attributes.</li>


This addition is editorial, since the section already specifies elements that can fire an accessibility API event. I thought it should be added explicitly since it was the original example that kicked this off (and is probably the other most common attribute authors use that would trigger an a11y event)

spectranaut

This looks great! And I think it is clear.

About whether or not this change is normative -- I'm not sure. In some respects, I think this "transparent" definition is what the "accessible children" work was originally trying to achieve, a case was just missed.

But this change in definition does change "Authors MUST statements", like: Authors MUST only add child element with allowed roles.. Because it changes author MUST statements we should have ACT review.

But it doesn't effect browser implementations right, because we don't specify how to exposes roles outside of their required context?

index.html

adampage

This is so great, @smhigley. 🤩 Very helpful to have a clear term — dad joke intended. 🤓

index.html

Co-authored-by: Valerie Young <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Adam Page <[email protected]>

smhigley · 2025-08-19T21:36:05Z

@spectranaut thanks for the review! For this:

But it doesn't effect browser implementations right, because we don't specify how to exposes roles outside of their required context?

That's also my understanding, it doesn't affect browser implementations b/c we don't specify how to expose the intervening generics, and also this should bring the spec in line with the current behavior (i.e. aria-live on an intervening generic didn't work).

github-actions · 2026-01-23T13:25:15Z

🚀 Deployed on https://deploy-preview-2599--wai-aria.netlify.app

index.html

Co-authored-by: Peter Krautzberger <[email protected]>

pkra

I would like to discuss an alternative to this addition. I suspect adding another definition is not as helpful. Instead, I would

add the information on when generics are excluded to Section 7.1
reduce the list for accessibility tree "candidates" to just 2 - DOM descendants and aria-own (descendants)
add more notes as needed
remove the extraneous stuff in the definition of accessibility parent

pkra · 2026-02-05T07:36:22Z

index.html

            example, an element with the role <rref>list</rref> allows <a>accessibility children</a> with the role <rref>listitem</rref>, but does not allow <a>accessibility children</a> with the role
            <rref>option</rref>.
          </p>
+          <p>To determine whether an element is the <a>accessibility child</a> of an element, <a>user agents</a> MUST ignore any intervening elements with the role <rref>generic</rref> or <rref>none</rref> which are <a>transparent</a>.</p>


This seems redundant (now).

hm, I know transparent is also in the definition of acc child, but this is the only place with browser MUST wording related to it

index.html

pkra · 2026-02-05T07:50:15Z

index.html

      <section id="tree_relationships">
        <h2>Relationships in the Accessibility Tree</h2>
        <p>The following terms are used to describe relationships between <abbr title="Document Object Model">DOM</abbr> elements.</p>
+        <p>A <dfn data-export="" data-lt="transparent|transparent element|transparent elements">transparent element</dfn> is an element that meets one of the following criteria:</p>


On revisiting this a year later, I'm not sure about this additional definition anymore.

pkra · 2026-02-05T07:53:21Z

index.html

+        <p>A <dfn data-export="" data-lt="transparent|transparent element|transparent elements">transparent element</dfn> is an element that meets one of the following criteria:</p>
+        <ul>
+          <li>It has a role of <rref>presentation</rref> or <rref>none</rref>, and does not meet one of the exceptions documented in the <a href="#conflict_resolution_presentation_none">Presentational Roles Conflict Resolution</a> section.</li>
+          <li>It is a <rref>generic</rref> element that does not have any attributes such as <pref>aria-live</pref> that would require it to be included in the accessibility tree, as covered in <a href="#tree_inclusion">Including Elements in the Accessibility Tree</a>.</li>


I think it would be simpler to add this rule for generics to the list at the beginning of Section 7.1 instead (adding the same sentence we have in the item for role=none that descendants are not excluded).

The issue is that this category of "transparent" elements are distinct from both generics (which may or may not be in the a11y tree at the browser's discretion), and elements which must be excluded entirely, which are outlined in 7.1.

This addition is specifically for elements that do not interfere with parent/chlid relations, but do not rise to the level of MUST NOT or SHOULD NOT a11y tree exclusion. When we were discussing the original a11y parent/child work, I remember some browser folks being clear that this should not add a new requirement for whether the intervening generics are part of the a11y tree; the only requirement is that they do not interfere with e.g. list/listitem or listbox/option hierarchy.

pkra · 2026-02-05T07:54:10Z

index.html

        <ul>
          <li>The <abbr title="Document Object Model">DOM</abbr> children of the <a>element</a>.</li>
-          <li>All DOM descendants of the <a>element</a> with only elements of role <rref>generic</rref> or <rref>none</rref> intervening.</li>
+          <li>All DOM descendants of the <a>element</a> with only <a>transparent elements</a> intervening.</li>


Then here we would only have to say "DOM descendants that are not excluded as per Section 7.1".

I suppose we don't even have to say that much since this list is preceded by "with exclusions listed below" and those exclusions follow immediately after.

pkra · 2026-02-05T08:06:44Z

index.html

          <li>
-            All DOM descendants of an element with role <rref>generic</rref> or <rref>none</rref> specified via <pref>aria-owns</pref> with only elements of role <rref>generic</rref> or
-            <rref>none</rref> intervening.
+            All DOM descendants of an element with role <rref>generic</rref> or <rref>none</rref> specified via <pref>aria-owns</pref> with only <a>transparent elements</a> intervening.


This paragraph was already redundant, I think.

pkra · 2026-02-05T08:08:51Z

index.html

@@ -16246,10 +16253,10 @@ <h2>Relationships in the Accessibility Tree</h2>
        </p>
        <ul>


I think this entire list should be removed as redundant. As shown here, it only adds maintenance burden.

pkra · 2026-02-05T08:20:21Z

@smhigley sorry for changing my mind a year later 😔 I'll volunteer if we decide on a different direction.

Add transparent generic definition and update accessibility parent an…

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…d child to reference it

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fix typo & reference error

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Co-authored-by: Valerie Young <[email protected]> Co-authored-by: Adam Page <[email protected]>

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spectranaut added this to ARIA Editorial (Spec Prose Updates) PR Tracking Aug 26, 2025

spectranaut moved this to Reviewed, need PR checklist item in ARIA Editorial (Spec Prose Updates) PR Tracking Aug 26, 2025

Merge branch 'main' into transparent-generic

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daniel-montalvo mentioned this pull request Jan 23, 2026

ARIA normative change -- Add transparent generic definition and update accessibility parent and child defs act-rules/act-rules.github.io#2381

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update parent to accessibility parent

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Co-authored-by: Peter Krautzberger <[email protected]>

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Merge branch 'main' into transparent-generic

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preserve prior change to clarify wording in acc parent section

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smhigley force-pushed the transparent-generic branch from 4d60517 to f88ce37 Compare February 11, 2026 00:53

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Merge branch 'main' into transparent-generic

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		@@ -16246,10 +16253,10 @@ <h2>Relationships in the Accessibility Tree</h2>
		</p>
		<ul>

Add transparent generic definition and update accessibility parent and child defs #2599

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Add transparent generic definition and update accessibility parent and child defs #2599

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