Instructions provided for understanding and operating content do not rely solely on sensory characteristics of components such as shape, size, visual location, orientation, or sound.
The purpose of this checkpoint is to ensure that items within a Web page are referenced in the content in ways that do not require the user to have sensory perception in order to understand the content. Content should not rely on size, sound, shape, or location in order to be understood.
To comply with this checkpoint, you must meet the following technique. This technique is defined in WCAG 2.0 Level A Success Criterion 1.3.3 (link resides outside of ibm.com).
- Textual Identification: Provide textual identification of items that otherwise rely only on sensory information to be understood.
Note: The examples presented in this technique are not exhaustive. They are meant to illustrate the spirit of this checkpoint.
To comply with this technique, you must implement all of the following examples.
General example 1
The Human Ability and Accessibility Center Web site uses a left navigation bar to help users easily traverse our site. When referring to items in the left navigation bar, we can say "Please choose the navigation selection from the left navigation bar." The site makes use of a hidden
<h2>element that says "Start of Left Navigation". This way, a non-sighted user can determine which navigation bar is the left navigation.
General example 2
Another example of this technique is when using a Go button on a page; instructions for using that button should not rely solely on sensory perception. Instead of saying "Please press the Green button when you are ready to proceed", the correct way to refer to the button is to say "Please press the Green Go button when you are ready to proceed." This allows color blind and visually impaired users to understand the instructions without having to perceive the color.
Required unit tests for general development technique 1
Manually review the following.
Although you do not have to implement the recommended techniques in order to comply with this checkpoint, you should review them since they can improve the accessibility and usability of the application.
Refer to the WCAG 2.0 Additional Techniques (Advisory) for Success Criterion 1.3.3 (link resides outside of ibm.com) for a list of techniques and examples.
©2013 IBM Corporation
Last updated January 1, 2013.
W3C Recommendation 11 December 2008: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ (link resides outside of ibm.com)
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