TL;DR
I propose that we make progressive enhancement a goal for components in open UI and track questions we have around PE in this bug.

NB: no need to bikeshed the HTML structures below, they aren't well thought out, they exist just to enable a more concrete discussion.

Use lists to do progressive enhancement and have shiny new components

It is important for adoption that these components follow a strategy of progressive enhancement. I believe in some ways we can rely on the browsers built-in parsing behavior to make that happen. For example most browsers (afaik) would correct the following HTML by inserting a UL around it:

<!-- browser inserts a UL -->
<li>item 1</li>
<li>item 1</li>
<li>item 1</li>
<!-- browser closes the UL -->

We can use that behavior to our advantage to achieve progressive enhancement. For example this carousel would be navigable in older browsers because they would treat it like a list:

<carousel>
  <li>item 1</li>
  <li>item 1</li>
  <li>item 1</li>
</carousel>

More components than you would expect turn out to have lists as an underlying structure. This can allow us to create declarative HTML that pushes the web forward, while still supporting older browsers.

Can we identify some of the most important progressive enhancement challenges in this bug?

Q: how can we ensure that headings are navigable in new elements?

<tabs>
  <tabslist>
    <li>tab 1</li> <!-- not selected tabs are essentially navigation to non-visible content -->
    <li>tab 2</li>
    <li selected>Tab 3</li> <!-- the currently selected tab functions as a heading for the visible content. How do we retain it's headingness for assistive tech? -->
  </tabslist>
  <content>
  </content>
</tabs>

Q: How do we ensure clickable elements are links for older browsers? e.g. in the tabs example, the li are links to the content below. Would this need a polyfill? Do we need a way of saying treat this li like an a?

Leonie and Brian quite likely have more to add here as they brought this issue to my attention. What other assistive tech issues need to be addressed?