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From: Brian Lovely
Date: Wed, Jun 17 2015 11:26AM
Subject: WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria for Important Messages
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We have important messages that may appear on our pages. They are HTML elements styled to catch the attention of the visually oriented user, not window alerts. In recommending that we expose these alert messages to assistive technology, I am asked to refer to the pertinent level A and/or level AA success critera (for instance, 1.1.1 Non-text Content [Level A]). What success criteria should I cite for this? Some of these alerts will be there on page load (for instance, if a user's account is overdrawn), and some will appear based on user actions (for instance, if they attempt to make a payment from a locked account).

Brian Lovely
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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Wed, Jun 17 2015 12:20PM
Subject: Re: WCAG 2.0 Success Criteria for Important Messages
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Brian

For content that auto updates (via AJAX) I would call it under 4.1.2
(since live regions or live region roles have to be used to
communicate that update to users, in your case it sounds like
role="alert" on the message container is what you want).

For static alerts that are made prominent through formatting or
graphics as the page loads:
- If an image is used it is SC 1.1.1 that you want. Say an icon needs
alt text "alert" or "important" or an error icon needs an alt text
such as "error!".

- If we are talking about how visual formatting of text (using CSS)
presents meaning or information, we are definitely in WCAG SC 1.3.1
territory, see e.g. technique h49:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2015/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20150226/H49

A note on that: Scrreen readers do not do well with valid emphasis
elements such as the <em> tag, they do little with that information,
unles you select one of a specialized speech scheme (see list of
review speech schemes in Jaws). This is unfortunately a challenge I
hope CSS3 could help resolve going forward.
I would recommend using role="heading" and aria-level="1" or "2" on
short messages with special formatting containing very important
alerts.
Sure, they may not represent document structure necessarily, as they
do not mark the beginning of a section or subsection, but that is the
most reliable way to indicate the relative importance of a message to
the widest array of assistive technologies, especially screen readers
(and, after all, screen reader users are the ones most unable to pick
up on visual presentation).
-B


On 6/17/15, Brian Lovely < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> We have important messages that may appear on our pages. They are HTML
> elements styled to catch the attention of the visually oriented user, not
> window alerts. In recommending that we expose these alert messages to
> assistive technology, I am asked to refer to the pertinent level A and/or
> level AA success critera (for instance, 1.1.1 Non-text Content [Level A]).
> What success criteria should I cite for this? Some of these alerts will be
> there on page load (for instance, if a user's account is overdrawn), and
> some will appear based on user actions (for instance, if they attempt to
> make a payment from a locked account).
>
> Brian Lovely
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> > > > >


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