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Title attribute for iframes

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From: Steve Green
Date: Sep 14, 2020 7:08PM

It is very common for testers and automated tools to report a WCAG non-conformance if an <iframe> element does not have a "title" attribute. However, I cannot find anything in WCAG that requires this. Can anyone point me towards such a requirement?

The Deque axe tool reports the absence of a "title" attribute as a violation of SCs 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks and 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value, both of which are highly improbable. Digging into it, it turns out that axe is referring to https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/html/H64, which is a technique that can be used in a couple of very specific situations, neither of which is applicable in most cases. Even then the "title" attribute is only a small part of a possible solution, not a requirement.

Furthermore, that page also says "The title attribute is not interchangeable with the name attribute. The title labels the frame for users; the name labels it for scripting and window targeting." Therefore, the absence of a "title" attribute cannot be a non-conformance of SC 4.1.2 (Name, role and value) even if that SC applied to <iframes>, which it does not (it only applies to "user interface components", which are defined as "a part of the content that is perceived by users as a single control for a distinct function").

The only SC I can find that could possibly require the "title" attribute is SC 1.1.1, but that seems to be a very long stretch for me. If all the contents of the <iframe> are fully WCAG conformant, why would the <iframe> need a text alternative? And if it does, why don't other containers such as <form> elements? Or <div>s?

Finally, I should mention that for the purposes of this discussion I am only interested in WCAG conformance, not screen reader behaviours, best practices or anything else.

As always, your thoughts would be very welcome.

Regards,
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
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