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Re: what to do when <section> flags as accessibility error

for

From: Steve Faulkner
Date: Dec 2, 2016 2:18PM

Hi Angela,

The use of the section element in the context used is absolutely fine,
though superfluous. In screen readers that convey the region role, you
should find that they will only convey the role if the element has an
explicitly associated accessible name. This is to avoid unnecessary
verbosity. WCAG does not say that a <section> element must have an
accessible name and ARIA does not dictate HTML semantics.



--

Regards

SteveF
Current Standards Work @W3C
<http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/2015/03/current-standards-work-at-w3c/>;

On 2 December 2016 at 19:24, Angela French < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> 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/>;
>
> > > > >