Is the css setting speak:none now equivalent to aria-hidden="true"?

Question

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).

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Use this combination:

• speak: never;
• speak-as: spell-out;

Values for speak

• auto: As long as the element is not display: block and is visibility:visible, text will be read aurally.
• never: text will not be read aurally
• always: text will be read aurally, regardless of display value or ancestor values of speak.

Values for speak-as Related to speak as it gets into how the text will be read:

• normal: Takes the browser’s default speak settings.
• spell-out: Instructs the browser to spell a properties content instead of speaking out full words.
• digits: Reads numbers one at a time, like 69 would be read “six nine”. Nice.
• literal-punctuation: Spells out punctations (like semicolons) rather than treating them like pauses.
• no-punctuation: Entirely skips punctuation.