I'm just wondering whether I should expect browsers and assistive technilogy circa January 2015 to use speak:none in a manner equivalent to setting aria-hidden="true". I'd like to indicate that some semi-opaque text should be ignored, and am wondering whether I can do it in one operation (just adding a class that sets the opaque style and speak:none, rather than adding the class and setting the aria-hidden attribute).
Best How To :
There does not seem to be reliable data on support to speak
, but it seems to be unimplemented.
Independently of the implementation status, speak: none
is not equivalent to aria-hidden="true"
.
According to the CSS Speech Module CR, the speak
property “determines whether or not to render text aurally”, i.e. audibly.
According to the ARIA specification, aria-hidden
“indicates that the element and all of its descendants are not visible or perceivable to any user as implemented by the author” (italic in the original).
Thus, aria-hidden="true"
does not cause anything; it just declares that the author has hidden the element. And it relates to all kinds of rendering: audible, visible, tactile, or whatever modalities might be invented in the future.