Testing of the latest builds of the major Windows browsers
indicates Google Chrome’s ARIA role support improving, 18 of 47 roles
are now correctly mapped to MSAA roles. There has been no change in
Opera or IE support and only minimal improvement in Safari/Webkit
support. There has been a minor regression in Firefox support in the latest Minefield build. The reported regression in Firefox was due to a reporting tool error. All ARIA roles are correctly mapped in Firefox.
Current levels of ARIA support in Chrome/Opera/Safari and their lack of support for assistive technology (on Windows) in general, means the only browsers currently usable by assistive technology users and the only browsers that can currently claim practical ARIA support are Firefox 3+ and Internet Explorer 8.
Summary of Results
47 (of the 59) WAI-ARIA roles can be mapped to MSAA roles:
- IE 8RC1 exposes 43 role values correctly
- Firefox (Minefield) 3.6 exposes 47 role values correctly
- Opera 10.10 beta exposes 21 role values correctly
- Webkit Nightly 23/09/09 exposes 10 role values correctly
- Chrome exposes 3.0 exposes 18 role values correctly
Detailed Results:
ARIA roles exposed via MSAA by browsers on Windows – Webkit Nightly 23/09/09, Opera 10.10, IE 8, Firefox (minefield) 3.6b1pre & Chrome 3.0
