Heading Permalinks + aria-hidden

[joshbruce]

Was doing some analytics using web.dev using the following page: https://joshbruce.com/web-development/2021-site-in-depth

Received the following feedback related to the HTML rendered by the heading permalink extension (reduces accessibility score):

Rendered output:

Alternative seen in the wild (non-GitHub, because they also use aria-hidden):

GitHub template also gets hit for accessibility on this score:

As I was writing this I thought about some possibilities...

1. Make the aria-hidden optional in the extension - with true as default - could be the most direct and backward compatible way; I would be willing to make that contribution.
2. Removing it entirely would probably break the GFM because GitHub does use aria-hidden.

Thanks as always!

[colinodell]

Great find! Yeah, I'd prefer to keep close alignment to GFM as much as possible, but I think this change makes a ton of sense.

[colinodell]

I tried to do more research on this subject but the only relevant info I could find was this: https://amberwilson.co.uk/blog/are-your-anchor-links-accessible/

[joshbruce]

Went to check the USWDS and see what they're thinking - they link to the same article along with a brief discussion: uswds/uswds#4166

Put it on my radar: 8fold/site-joshbruce.com#72

It's an interesting problem and Amber summed it up well and seems more specialized than me. The option of turning off aria-hidden should help (thanks for the merge) and I'm thinking of extending and extension - that literally possible?? lol

[joshbruce]

Just did a quick verification on Amber's site while creating the extension and it passes despite the aria-hidden because it has no focusable descendants.