WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: WCAG2 and vertical bars (|)

for

From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Apr 29, 2015 2:06PM

That would be a failure under 1.3.3 - see F26: Failure of Success Criterion 1.3.3 due to using a graphical symbol alone to convey information (http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20140916/F26 )
" The objective of this technique is to show how using a graphical symbol to convey information can make content difficult to comprehend. A graphical symbol may be an image, an image of text or a pictorial or decorative character symbol (glyph) which imparts information nonverbally. Examples of graphical symbols include an image of a red circle with a line through it, a "smiley" face, or a glyph which represents a check mark, arrow, or other symbol but is not the character with that meaning."

The key part here is the use of a symbol that means something different, for instance, the symbol > means "greater than" not "next".

1.3.3 is level A.

sb
Sarah E. Bourne
Director of IT Accessibility, MassIT
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/MassIT