Understanding Accessibility
by Vivienne Trulock
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Guideline 12. Provide context and orientation information.
Checkpoint 12.3 - Divide large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate
This checkpoint refers to the correct use of headers, list elements and div tags and their use in grouping related elements.
How do I do it?
Form controls can be grouped using the <fieldset> and <legend> tags. The <optgroup> tag can also be used to group choices.
Tables and associated tags such as <thead>, <tbody>, <tfoot> and <colgroup> should be used to group tabular data.
List items should use <ul>, <ol>, <dl>, <dd> & <li>.
Header elements should be used correctly to break up long stretches of text and add structure.
The <p> tag should be used to break text into paragraphs.
How do I check that it meets the WCAG criteria?
Pages will be manually scanned for elements which are not grouped properly such as large amounts of text or choices. Where pages have elements which are not grouped and could be obviously grouped, the page will be deemed to have failed the check. However, this guideline is very subjective and groupings made by one person may be different from another’s.
