Summary: Use role="application" very sparingly, if at all.
NEVER use role="application" on a widely containing element such as <body> if your page consists mostly of traditional widgets or page elements such as links that the user does not have to interact with in focus mode. Using role="application" unnecessarily can cause huge headaches for any assistive technology user trying to use your site/application. Only put it on the <body> element if your page consists solely of a widget or set of widgets that all need the focus mode1 to be turned on.
Do Use
- Use if your page has no resemblance to a classic document in roughly over 90% of its content
- Use clear labels within your application
Don’t Use
- If a user interface and controls are solely elements that are part of standard HTML2.
- If your widget is dynamic such as a tree view, slider, table.
Unless you take a great deal of care in ensuring that you’ve recreated a lot of native–ish custom navigation, it’s almost always better to leave the browser/AT to its own devices. We really only recommend it on a per–in–page–widget basis, and even then: very very carefully.
References:
- http://www.marcozehe.de/2012/02/06/if-you-use-the-wai-aria-role-application-please-do-so-wisely
- https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/aria-unofficial/raw-file/tip/index.html#application
- http://www.accessibleculture.org/articles/2012/09/aria-widgets-and-focus-forms-mode-support
Footnotes
-
Allows the user to interact with forms and ARIA-enabled HTML elements. ↩
-
Standard HTML refers to: text, password, search, tel and other newer input type derivates, textarea, checkbox, button, radio button (usually inside a fieldset/legend element wrapper), select + option(s), links, paragraphs, headings, and other things that are classic/native to documents on the web. ↩