@jnurthen
Based on JN feedback on issue 504 I created a description list role. I also renamed the term and description roles, the following is a list of the new roles:

• descriptionlist
• descriptionterm
• descriptionitem

Preview of ARIA Specification with new description list roles

Example:

<div role="discriptionlist">
   <div role="descriptionterm">Quadrate</div>
   <div role="descriptionitem">Make square. Example: "the materials are there quadrated or formed into rectangular blocks"</div>
   <div role="descriptionitem">Conform or cause to conform.  Example: "he had to make a creed which would quadrate with his immorality"</div>
  .....
</div>

Note that one description can also have multiple terms, i.e. example in HTML spec where "Color" and "Colour" have the same description.

So for descriptionterm, might want to add:

• MAY be followed by one or more sibling elements whose role is also descriptionterm.

And for descriptionitem, might want to add:

• MAY be followed by one or more sibling elements whose role is also descriptionitem.

Also, descriptionlist needs to allow for the possibility of multiple terms having the same definition in this sentence:

Description lists contain children whose role is descriptionitem and descriptionterm to represent a list of terms each having one or more descriptions.

What should we do about the old ARIA definition and term roles?

• Keep 'definition' for parity with 'dfn' (would need to remove 'dd' from related concepts)?
• What about term? Is it now superseded by 'descriptionterm'?

With the decoupling of term from dt and definition from dd, I've been mulling over these roles some more, it seems the related concepts are misaligned...

In HTML:

The dfn element represents the defining instance of a term.

An example of using the dfn element:

<dfn>Apple</dfn> is a type of fruit, or computer, or record label.

<dfn> (which was clearly the wrong element name) matches ARIA's role=term:

A word or phrase with a corresponding definition.

Now, looking at role=definition:

A definition of a term or concept.

The related concepts did list dd and dfn, but with the removal of dd it appears to me that role=definition is really the role that should no longer have a related concept element, as dfn is better aligned with role=term.

HTML AAM already maps role=term to <dfn> and role=definition to <dd> (which will have to be changed in the future...)

@mcking65 @johnfoliot
This is a response to Matt Kings comment on using dlist instead of descriptionlist for the role name in issue 504.

I like the idea of not having the entire word "description" in the role name, so dlist or maybe a little better would be desclist role, instead of descriptoinlist. My main concern with including list in the term role is that there will be two "t"'s in a row: dlistterm, but maybe it can't be helped.

Option 1:

• dlist
• dlistterm
• dlistitem

Option 2:

• desclist
• desclistterm
• desclistitem

I like the desclist option a little better, since it is clear what the "d" stands for, what do other people think?

My personal opinion is that we should not abbreviate this. I'd prefer a long but descriptive role over an abbreviated one.

Full names are consistent with other ARIA role names (except img...).

I have updated the new roles to use:

• associationlist
• associationlistitemkey
• associationlistitemvalue

Updates to the term and definition roles will be in another pull request.

The ARIA Working Group just discussed description lists.

we need to specify more about what is allowed in each "group" of associationlistitems...Taken from html spec:

Each term-description group consists of one or more terms (represented by dt elements) possibly as children of a div element child, and one or more descriptions (represented by dd elements possibly as children of a div element child), ignoring any nodes other than dt and dd element children, and dt and dd elements that are children of div element children within a single dl element.

I have fixed the outstanding issue and think else before you merge?

@jnurthen The PR for association list roles should be ready to merge