[FIX][Accessibility]: #44546 Remove redundant role="contentinfo" from footer

[ZallaxDev]

According to the BITV test for ILIAS 9, the attribute role="contentinfo” in the footer was unnecessary and has been removed. This role is redundant since the <footer> element already carries an implicit contentinfo landmark, making the explicit role unnecessary.

This change improves compliance with WCAG and BITV accessibility guidelines.

For reference, see the related ticket: https://mantis.ilias.de/view.php?id=44546

[klees]

Hi everyone,

this issue was raised in the new Accessibility Squad. The additional role was added bia PR #2500 after some lengthy discussion and I'm hesitand to remove it again just like that. If I remember correctly, the introduction was the outcome of one BITV test, now another BITV test (see ticket) flags this. To avoid further back and forth, I asked our new accessibility expert @Annett7811 to make a recommendation that we can stick with. She is investigating and will bring her conclusion to the squad again.

Looking forward to this, and thanks y'all!

[Annett7811]

Hi!

Currently, the footer is nested in

. In this position, it is technically only the footer of the main area. The manual role="contentinfo" is supposed to mark a global page footer, but it causes screenreaders to continue to sort the footer below ‘Main’. For users, this sounds like an area footer and not like the page footer – which is misleading. Is there a compelling reason to leave the footer in the main (layout/styling)? If not, we should move it to the body level (not in

). Then

is sufficient without an additional role – screen readers automatically recognise the correct page footer.

Basically, we should weigh up the effort/concept and the benefits here. In principle, the information is available in the footer even if it is located in the main section.

[klees]

HI @Annett7811,

yes, there is a reason to leave the footer where it is: It is our current solution to the positioning and functionality of the Main Bar. Basically, the current positioning of the footer kind of naturally causes the Main Bar to fill the complete left side and also move the footer to the right with the rest of the page when the Slate of the Main Bar is expanded.

I'm quite confident that there is a solution where the footer can be moved up higher in the hierarchy of the DOM and to its correct location, but we don't have it and I also can't tell if that solution has other downsides.

Maybe we shall discuss this in our next A11y-Meeting.

Kind regards!

[Annett7811]

Hi @klees,

We'll do that then.

Best regards

[klees]

Another idea: Would it make any difference if we'd just replace the <footer> with a <div>?

[Annett7811]

Thanks for your thoughts. However, that doesn't really solve the semantic problem, it probably makes it worse (because a

has no semantic meaning). A structural solution that moves the footer to the correct place in the DOM (at body level) without losing the layout behaviour would generally be better.