Discrepancy between platform mappings for footer

[tranjocelyn]

For section 3.4.42 footer (scoped to the main element,a sectioning content element), some platforms expose the generic role, however, for others (UIA and ATK) they expose the footer role. Why are the mappings so different from each other?

[aleventhal]

@jcsteh do you have an opinion on this one? Each platform's mapping is very different from each other.

[scottaohara]

worth keeping this proposal for new non-generic header/footer roles in mind - w3c/aria#1931

actually. if chromium / gecko could express whether they'd good with that proposal or not, then that can be implemented, and then platforms can be consistent.

[jcsteh]

This kind of discrepancy usually occurs because a platform didn't want to lose the semantic information inferred by the role, but also didn't want it mapped as a landmark in some cases. This is also why the form element/role is so messy. Other platforms likely didn't agree because a non-landmark version of that role doesn't exist on that platform.

I can't speak for UIA, which tends to non-semantically map a whole bunch of stuff to localized control types. That'd be a question for someone at Microsoft.