Safari 4 public beta with WAI-ARIA support. Or not?

As most people reading this will already know, Apple announced a public beta of Safari 4 last week. There are many new features in this version of the browser, but the one I am most interested in trying out is the addition of support for WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications).

However, I can’t find any ARIA examples that work in VoiceOver with the Safari 4 beta. I tried many of iCITA’s ARIA Examples, some of the examples posted at The Paciello Group Blog, and some that I have created myself. No luck.

Apart from not managing to get anything ARIA-related to work with VoiceOver in Safari 4, I can’t find any documentation that explains exactly what parts of ARIA are supported and how to use them.

Perhaps Safari 4 does support ARIA, but VoiceOver doesn’t, so ARIA support is only available in the Windows version? Anyone happen to know more about the state of ARIA support in Safari?

Posted on March 5, 2009 in Browsers, Apple, Accessibility