WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Available title indication via css

for

From: Wolfgang Berndorfer
Date: Nov 12, 2017 12:44PM


Hi all,

My personal interim summary:

Thanks for the interesting discussion and imputs! I try to sum up under the
viewpoint of my original question, which I'd like to precise like this:

Is a visual indication for the existence of a title-attribute on an element
via styling necessary?

Answer:

1. Visual Indicators for the existence of a title-attribute are helpful for
sighted users with the ability to trigger hover-effects with their mouse and
should therefore be considered as necessary. [At least there where no
objections against the substance of this statement.]
2. The visual indication of the existence of a title-attribute is neither
necessary nor sufficient for WCAG conformance when using title-attributes.
It's simply an issue of usability for sighted mouse users.
3. The helpfulness of a title-information not only in the first instance
results from navigational strategies of users which can cause a skip over
the first instance.

BUT don't forget the general accessibility problems of the thitle attribute:

1. The title-attribute ist not available for keyboard-only usage except
a) in MS Edge [didn't look for detailed implementation] and
b) for some elements via screen reader functionalities depending on
settings. (e.g. abbr-attribute presented as abbreviation or expanded)
2. Therefore the first instance of an element to get title-informations MUST
present the information in plain text, which means automatically visible on
screen and anounced by screen readers. (e.g. meaning of an abbreviation,
translation of foreign language element, .)

Wolfgang