Apple Webkit Gets Serious About WAI-ARIA (on Mac)

A check of the support for WAI-ARIA roles in the latest Webkit Nightly builds, reveals a major improvement for WAI-ARIA role support on the Mac version of Webkit (an open source web browser engine), but the Windows version shows little progress.

Mac Webkit nightly builds now support more than 60% of the ARIA roles, up from 25% a few months ago. Improved support includes all ARIA landmark roles and many document structure roles.

WAI-ARIA has 59 possible role values (excluding abstract roles):

Mac Support

• Webkit Nightly 26/09/09 on Mac exposes 39 role values correctly via The Mac accessibility API.
• Safari 4.0 on Mac exposes 17 role values correctly via The Mac accessibility API
• Safari 4 Beta on Mac exposes 15 role values correctly via The Mac accessibility API

Windows Support

• Webkit Nightly 23/09/09 on Windows exposes 10 role values correctly via MSAA.
• Safari 4.0 on Windows exposes 8 role values via MSAA
• Safari 4 Beta on Windows exposes 8 role values via MSAA

Detailed results: ARIA role tests on Mac and Windows – Webkit Nightly builds, Safari 4.0 & Safari 4 beta.