ARIA roles exposed via MSAA by browsers on Windows - Safari 4, Opera 10, IE 8, Firefox 3 & Chrome 1

Summary

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

IE 8RC1 exposes 42 role values via MSAA
Firefox (Minefield) 3.2a1pre exposes 49 role values via MSAA
Opera 10 Alpha exposes 21 role values via MSAA
Safari 4 Beta exposes 8 role values via MSAA
Chrome exposes 0 role values via MSAA

Software used for testing

Methodology

Use Inspect32 tool to verify the roles exposed via MSAA for each of the WAI-ARIA role attribute values.
For IE and Firefox each role can be checked by tabbing to the cell with the role attached. The first column of the results table contains cells with each of the 59 ARIA roles assigned, for example:
<td tabindex="0" role="alert">alert</td>
For Opera, Safari and Chrome place the mouse cursor in the cell, but not over the text the cell contains. Mouse is required as it appears programmatic focus is not exposed via MSAA (I think).
"Expected Roles" were derived from reading the various references and trying to patch together expectations based on them.

Inspect32 application showing the MSAA role value 'dialog' for an ARIA role value of 'alertdialog'.

Results

Notes:

If the role name is included in the result column for a browser without any annotation, it indciates the correct role is being exposed, otherwise:
- (Unsure) after a result means it is not clear if the exposed role is appropriate.
- X after a result means an incorrect or no role is exposed.
For roles with an "Expected MSAA Role" value of "none" an incorrect or no role does not necessarily indicate that the ARIA role information is not available to Assistive Technology.
- These ARIA roles do not have direct mapping with MSAA roles, but may be made available to assistive technology via the UIAutomation (UIA) API or the IAccessible2 (IA2). From preliminary testing using UISpy for UIA and Accprobe for IA2, it was found that none of the ARIA roles without a corresponding MSAA role were exposed via either UIAutomation or IAccessible2.
- In the case of the ARIA Landmark roles, the JAWS screen reader supports them, although they are not exposed using an accessibility API. It is surmised that JAWS picks them up from the browsers HTML DOM.

WAI-ARIA Role values exposed via MSAA
ARIA Role	Expected MSAA Role	IE reported Role	Firefox Reported Role	Opera - Reported Role	Safari - Reported Role	Chrome - Reported Role
alert	alert	alert	alert	alert	grouping X	none X
alertdialog	dialog	dialog	dialog	alert (unsure)	grouping X	none X
application	application	pane (unsure)	application	application	grouping X	none X
article	None	cell X	document (unsure)	cell X	grouping X	none X
banner	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
button	push button	push button	push button	row X	push button	none X
checkbox	check box	check box	check box	row X	check box	none X
columnheader	column header	column header	column header	column header	grouping X	none X
combobox	combo box	combo box	combo box	combo box	grouping X	none X
complementary	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
contentinfo	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
definition	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
dialog	dialog	dialog	dialog	dialog	grouping X	none X
directory	list	list	list	unknown object X	grouping X	none X
document	client	client	document	unknown object X	grouping X	none X
grid	table	table	table	table	grouping X	none X
gridcell	cell	cell	cell	cell	grouping X	none X
group	grouping	grouping	grouping	client X	grouping	none X
heading	text? heading?	text	heading	cell X	client X	none X
img	graphic	graphic	graphic	graphic	graphic	none X
label	text	cell X	text	text	grouping X	none X
link	link	link	link	link	link	none X
list	list	list	list	list	grouping X	none X
listbox	list	list	list	list	client X	none X
listitem	list item	list item	list item	list item	grouping X	none X
log	log?	cell X	log	unknown object X	grouping X	none X
main	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
marquee	animation? marquee?	animation	marquee	cell X	grouping X	none X
math	equation?	cell X	equation	cell X	grouping X	none X
menu	pop up menu	pop up menu	pop up menu	row X	client X	none X
menubar	menu bar	menu bar	menu bar	menu bar	grouping X	none X
menuitem	menu item	menu item	menu item	row X	grouping X	none X
menuitemcheckbox	menu item	menu item	menu item	row X	client X	none X
menuitemradio	menu item	menu item	menu item	row X	client X	none X
navigation	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
note	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
option	list item	list item	list item	list item	grouping X	none X
presentation	no object exposed	no object exposed	presentation	cell X	grouping X	none X
progressbar	progress bar	progress bar	progress bar	progress bar	client	none X
radio	radio button	radio button	radio button	row X	radio button	none X
radiogroup	grouping	grouping	grouping	grouping	grouping X	none X
row	row	cell X	row	list item X	grouping X	none X
region	pane?	pane (unsure)	grouping (unsure)	unknown object X	grouping X	none X
rowheader	row header	row header	row header	row X	grouping X	none X
search	None	cell X	cell X	cell X	grouping X	none X
separator	seperator	seperator	seperator	row X	grouping X	none X
slider	slider	slider	slider	row X	slider	none X
spinbutton	spin box	spin box	spin box	progress bar X	grouping X	none X
status	status bar	status bar	status bar	cell X	grouping X	none X
tab	page tab	page tab	page tab	page tab	grouping X	none X
tablist	page tab list	page tab list	page tab list	grouping X	grouping X	none X
tabpanel	property page	pane (unsure)	property page	client (unsure)	grouping X	none X
textbox	editable text	editable text	editable text	row X	editable text	none X
timer	timer	cell X	timer	cell X	grouping X	none X
toolbar	tool bar	tool bar	tool bar	tool bar	grouping X	none X
tooltip	tool tip	tool tip	tool tip	cell X	grouping X	none X
tree	outline	outline	outline	outline	grouping X	none X
treegrid	outline	cell X	outline	outline	grouping X	none X
treeitem	outline item	outline item	outline item	list item (unsure)	grouping X	none X

References

Author: steve faulkner The Paciello Group
contact: sfaulkner@paciellogroup.com

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.