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

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Dec 4, 2016 2:58PM

> I think that as accessibility experts we often get a little too caught up in our role as standards auditors. Concentrating on the issues that pose real world problems for users is much more important. If yours is a very large site "fixing" what in my opinion is an inconsequential error could cost hundreds of man hours and really make it difficult for you to push for the more important changes on the site.

I totally agree that we must prioritize issues. As for causing hundreds of hours -- I'm not sure -- I'd imagine that a piece of JavaScript could be written that would use aria-labelledby to associate the heading with its containing section. Generally I am of the mindset that only landmarks that could be confusing without an accessible name would be a violation. For example
* A page where there are two navigation regions
* A page where one section ends and other begins but there is no heading and adding an accessible name would cause the region to show up to screen readers thus communicating a visual section of the page.

That is the fact that adding an accessible name causes the region to appear to screen readers may be necessary in specific situations where this information is communicated visually such as change in background color. Dialogs can also be created with regions and I'd argue when you have a dialog it should always have an accessible name.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group 
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (Office)

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-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2016 2:48 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] what to do when <section> flags as accessibility error

> Is there any impact to screen reader users by not being labeled? It is flagged as a level A error.

The ARIA 1.1 spec indicates that all regions must have an accessible name. Section directly maps to the region role.

Jonathan

But in all practicality it's not going to make a bit of difference to your users as long as have an h1 at the start of your content. You could possibly give that element a role="main" to make it clearer that this is where the main content is and preserve any impact to your css or js that may depend upon the existence of that section tag.

I would save any additional work for a major redesign when you would want to put in some really meaningful semantic html 5 region navigation across the site.

I think that as accessibility experts we often get a little too caught up in our role as standards auditors. Concentrating on the issues that pose real world problems for users is much more important. If yours is a very large site "fixing" what in my opinion is an inconsequential error could cost hundreds of man hours and really make it difficult for you to push for the more important changes on the site.

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jonathan Avila
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2016 1:36 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] what to do when <section> flags as accessibility error

> Is there any impact to screen reader users by not being labeled? It is flagged as a level A error.

The ARIA 1.1 spec indicates that all regions must have an accessible name. Section directly maps to the region role.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (Office)

Visit us online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Blog Don't miss Trends in Accessibility & Electronic Documents on Wed 12/7!

The information contained in this transmission may be attorney privileged and/or confidential information intended for the use of the individual or entity named above. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Angela French
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2016 2:29 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] what to do when <section> flags as accessibility error

Is there any impact to screen reader users by not being labeled? It is flagged as a level A error.

Angela French

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2016 11:27 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] what to do when <section> flags as accessibility error

I would mark it as noise and move on...

Mike Moore
Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Angela French
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2016 1:25 PM
To: WebAim Forum ( <EMAIL REMOVED> ) < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [WebAIM] what to do when <section> flags as accessibility error

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/>;