Understanding Accessibility

Guideline 3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.

Checkpoint 3.7 - Mark up quotations. Do not use quotation markup for formatting effects such as indentation

The use of <Q> and <BLOCKQUOTE> to markup quotations, facilitates assistive technologies to render the page correctly.

How do I do it?

Short quotations of 10 words or less should use the <Q> tag for markup. Long quotations of 11 words or more should use the <BLOCKQUOTE> tag.

<Q> tags automatically put in the quotes for you, so you don't have to.

<q>I can resist anything except temptation</q>, Oscar Wilde

Blockquotes naturally indent longer quotes

<blockquote>I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what.</blockquote> <br>Harper Lee (1926 - ), To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960</br>

How do I check that it meets the WCAG criteria?

Where quotations are visible on the page, the code should be checked for both <Q> and <BLOCKQUOTE> in Dreamweaver or Notepad using the Edit > Find command and the search strings '<Q>' and '<BLOCKQUOTE>'.

Quotations not using either tag will fail. Quotations using the wrong tag for its length will fail.

Text enclosed with quotes which does not have a source referenced is not deemed a quotation. It is to be regarded as emphasis and will fail this check.

Related Links:

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