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Re: Tab controls and WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow

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From: Steve Green
Date: Mar 31, 2022 1:49AM

Development is the easy part - there are several ways this could be implemented such as to be fully WCAG conformant. The difficulty we have as testers is persuading the developers and other stakeholders that it is non-conformant and needs to be changed.

Unsurprisingly, they don't want to spend time and money changing anything, so they challenge us to show that it really is non-conformant. And that's perfectly reasonable - we should be able to justify our opinions. However, ambiguous specifications like WCAG mean it's possible for opposing views to appear equally plausible.

Steve


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of Niranjan Vala
Sent: 31 March 2022 08:36
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Tab controls and WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow

I also think that horizontal tabs should be made responsive for all screen sizes so it meets with the Reflow WCAG success criterion. For smaller screen sizes, it should be vertically stacked and for bigger screens, It can be aligned horizontally. In fact that is what I have seen on many popular websites that uses tabs. There could be another approach in which tabs with only icons with proper hidden but accessible labels can be used so they can be aligned horizontally even on smaller screen sizes.

On Thu, 31 Mar 2022 at 11:31, Steve Green < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> This exact issue came up last week in an IAAP discussion, and our team
> discussed it internally for more than an hour. It seems simple at
> first, but it raises the question of what "scrolling" means, among other things.
> The WCAG authors must have assumed it's obvious, because they do not
> provide a definition.
>
> Opinion was split, both in IAAP and in our team. My view is that a Tab
> component does not require two-dimensional layout, and that the tabs
> can perfectly well wrap onto two or more lines. Indeed, I failed one
> of our clients' sites on this exact issue.
>
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> Laurence Lewis
> Sent: 31 March 2022 06:53
> To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
> Subject: [WebAIM] Tab controls and WCAG 1.4.10 Reflow
>
> Hello
>
> I have a situation where a Tab component design had multiple tabs
> horizontally. If the screen is resized, or zoomed, some of the tabs
> are hidden from view in the sized container div. In some cases the tab
> name can be truncated with half the tab in view.
>
> The tabs can be scrolled in the container which opens other problems,
> however for WCAG 2.2 I think this will be a Visible Controls fail.
> but, is this a Reflow fail? I believe it may be because a Tab
> component does nor require a two-dimensional layout to be meaningful
> and thus the Tabs can be stacked in view.
>
> I would like to hear the opinion of other A11y people on potential
> accessibility issues.
>
>
> All the best
> Laurence
> Digital Accessibility Senior Specialist Telstra
> > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> > > > archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> >


--
Cheers,

Niranjan G Vala