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Re: Empty tags (divs, p and strong) in the code?

for

From: Bryan Garaventa
Date: Aug 17, 2012 10:36AM


That is a grey area, in that headings are pseudo active in that you can use
'h' and 'shift+h' to navigate to them, even if they are empty.

The use of role=presentation should prevent this from occurring however.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ramya Sethuraman" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 9:21 AM
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Empty tags (divs, p and strong) in the code?


> Interesting. Would an empty header cause a problem?
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 12:20 PM, Bryan Garaventa <
> <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> There's no need, empty static elements have no accessibility issues.
>>
>> The problem with empty tags is in regard to active elements like links,
>> where feedback is necessary to convey the meaning of the element.
>> Decorative
>> tags like lines or spacer images have no value for screen reader users,
>> so
>> are best ignored.
>>
>> One exception to this is when you use an empty element like a div tag
>> that
>> uses a background image to convey meaning, like an arrow to convey that
>> clicking the image will navigate somewhere else. ARIA can then be used to
>> make this accessible with the correct event handlers attached.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Ramya Sethuraman" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
>> Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 9:12 AM
>> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Empty tags (divs, p and strong) in the code?
>>
>>
>> > Would it make sense to use a role="presentation" on these elements?
>> >
>> > On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 11:56 AM, Rabab Gomaa
>> > < <EMAIL REMOVED> >wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hello,
>> >>
>> >> I am wondering if using empty tags can cause any accessibility
>> >> failures.
>> >> Example:
>> >> - <div class="hrline">&nbsp;</div>
>> >> This class is used to have a decorative horizontal line.
>> >>
>> >> - <strong></strong>
>> >> - <p>&#160;</p>
>> >> This is sometimes a miss during markup.
>> >>
>> >> I searched in the archived and found an older post about empty
>> >> anchors
>> >> http://webaim.org/discussion/mail_thread?threadQ72 but my question
>> >> is
>> >> about divs, p and strong elements with or without spaces like &nbsp;.
>> >>
>> >> Thank you,
>> >> Rabab
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> >> >> >> >> >> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > >> > >> > >>
>> >> >> >>
>
>
>
> --
> *I also exist @: http://www.ramyasethuraman.com*
> > >