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Thread: CynthiaSays giving me a false results

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From: Angela French
Date: Tue, Nov 01 2011 1:45PM
Subject: CynthiaSays giving me a false results
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I am using CynthiaSays as one of my tools for reviewing the accessibility of web page. When running a in Report Mode: WCAG - Priority 1,2,3, it keeps reporting a failure to me of 13.1 with:

Rule: 13.1.2 - All Anchor elements are required not to use the same link text to refer to different resources.

* Failure - Anchor Element at Line: 430, Column: 12
* Failure - Anchor Element at Line: 436, Column: 12

430: <li><a href="/college/d_i-best.aspx">Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST)</a></li>
431:
432: <li><a href="http://www.sbctc.edu/docs/investment_innov_impact/investment_innovation_impact.pdf">Investment, Innovation, Impact</a></li>
433:
434: <li><a href="http://www.sbctc.edu/docs/data/2009sept_sbctc_strategic_goals_with_measures.ppt">Logic Model and Measures</a></li>
435:
436: <li><a href="/college/d_opportunitygrants.aspx">Opportunity Grants</a></li>
437:

The thing is, I run the test to include file source so I can see what's at those lines, and while there are two links represented there, they neither have the same href OR link label. Has anyone ever seen these false results with CynthiaSays before?

Thank you,

Angela French
Internet Specialist
State Board for Community and Technical Colleges
360-704-4316
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.checkoutacollege.com/

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Wed, Nov 02 2011 12:36AM
Subject: Re: CynthiaSays giving me a false results
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1.11.2011 21:42, Angela French wrote:

> I am using CynthiaSays as one of my tools for reviewing the accessibility of web page.

I'm afraid Cynthia Says is seriously outdated and wasn't ever a
particularly useful tool - it seems to confuse people more than help
them. It refers to WCAG 1.0 as "WCAG" and has a browser dropdown list
(for "emulating" browsers, whatever that means) that contains e.g.
Netscape 2.0 (no Firefox) and IE versions up to 6.0. Its messages are
generally confusing and often just plain wrong.

However, in this particular case it seems to have identified a problem,
just fails to report it properly.

> When running a in Report Mode: WCAG - Priority 1,2,3,

It seems that the page being tested is
http://www.sbctc.edu/college/d_i-best.aspx

> it keeps reporting a failure to me
> of 13.1 with:
>
> Rule: 13.1.2 - All Anchor elements are required not to use the same link text to refer
> to different resources.
>
> * Failure - Anchor Element at Line: 430, Column: 12
> * Failure - Anchor Element at Line: 436, Column: 12
[...]
> The thing is, I run the test to include file source so I can see what's at those lines,
> and while there are two links represented there, they neither have
the same href OR link label.

The rule is against the same link text and _different_ href values. And
those lines have
different link texts. But the report is just too short and cryptic. The
link on line 430
has the same link text as another link (with a different href value)
_somewhere_ on the page. The report does not say where. Similarly for
the link on page 436.

If you open the source of the document (as delivered to a browser) and
search for the link text of the link on line 430,
"Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST)",
you will find that the same text appears as link text on line 300, with
a different href value.

(The navigation mechanisms of the page are complex and confusing, and in
addition to the problem of using the same text for different links, it
has e.g. the problem that the page contains a link to the page itself -
a major usability and accessibility issue.)

Yucca