Which aria role should a portlet have

Question

Which aria role should a portlet(see the jquery ui example below, but with more content in it like form, pictures, tables etc) have.

http://jqueryui.com/demos/sortable/#portlets

Answer 1

Each portlet usually resembles a web-application, so it is always good to mark the portlet with a role="application" which make assistive technologies to switch to application browsing mode.

This application browsing mode helps in interacting with the web application by passing device input events through the application like keyboard events.

And your portlet whether it be an email application or some other Drag and drop application, you can then mark the inner elements with their respective roles like for example pictures with role="presentation", tables with role="grid", etc.

Here is an example of an email application and drag and drop which can be like portlets.

See also:

• application(role)