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what to do when <section> flags as accessibility error

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From: Angela French
Date: Dec 2, 2016 12:24PM

Hello,
We are piloting the use of Siteimprove. One of its features is site-wide accessibility scanning and reporting. It is indeed helping us find things we had overlooked.

On our site (example page<http://www.sbctc.edu/starting-your-career/right-career-for-you.aspx>;) it is flagging the use of the html5 <section> tag. We have used this tag to delineate everything in-between (excluding) the top global navigation elements and the footer.

The error reads:

"The page contains an HTML5 <section> or a WAI-ARIA landmark of the type 'region'. These types of landmarks are very general and should be named to help users identify the purpose of the landmark"

It says the fix is to : "Use either the WAI-ARIA attribute 'aria-label' or 'aria-labelledby' to name the landmark in a way that clearly explains the purpose of the landmark to all users."

Looking back, the use of the <section> tag seems superfluous as there is only one. But doesn't the use of an h1 heading as the first thing within the section content function similarly to providing some sort of ARIA attribute such as 'aria-label' or 'aria-labelledby'?

I am looking for a solution that would be easy to implement site-wide. Removing the <section> element altogether would be a major pain.

Thank you, as always, for your opinions.



Angela French
Internet/Intranet Specialist
Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
360-704-4316
<EMAIL REMOVED> <mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> >
www.sbctc.edu<;http://www.sbctc.edu/>;