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Re: Accessible org charts

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From: Steve Green
Date: Nov 29, 2017 5:23PM

The root cause of this problem is that there is not a universally agreed set of semantics for an organisational chart. Or if there is, I'm not aware of it.

Some aspects of the structure of an org chart correspond to a nested list, such as parent and child relationships and groups of people at the same level. However, other aspects do not correspond to any HTML semantics. For instance, two subordinates of one person may be at different levels of seniority (and hence shown at different vertical positions in the org chart) even though they are both one step removed from the same person.

Also, org charts often have sideways relationships that may mean various things and there can be complex relationships such as when a person has "dotted line" responsibilities to people other than their line manager.

Until there is an agreed set of semantics for all these relationships, it will not be possible to represent the chart in HTML in a way that people will understand, and it's very possible that new HTML semantics would need to be created.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd