Techniques for WCAG 2.0

Skip to Content (Press Enter)

Plain Text Techniques for WCAG 2.0

This Web page lists Plain Text Techniques from Techniques for WCAG 2.0: Techniques and Failures for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Technology-specific techniques do not replace the general techniques: content developers should consider both general techniques and technology-specific techniques as they work toward conformance.

Publication of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0 success criteria and conformance requirements. Developers need to be aware of the limitations of specific technologies and provide content in a way that is accessible to people with disabilities.

For information about the techniques, see Introduction to Techniques for WCAG 2.0. For a list of techniques for other technologies, see the Table of Contents.

Table of Contents



T1: Using standard text formatting conventions for paragraphs

Applicability

Plain text documents. Not applicable to technologies that contain markup.

This technique relates to:

Description

The objective of this technique is to recognize a paragraph in a plain text document. A paragraph is a coherent block of text, such as a group of related sentences that develop a single topic or a coherent part of a larger topic.

The beginning of a paragraph is indicated by

  • the beginning of the content, that is, the paragraph is the first content in the document, or

  • exactly one blank line preceding the paragraph text

The end of a paragraph is indicated by

  • the end of the content, that is, the paragraph is the last content in the document, or

  • one or more blank lines following the paragraph text

A blank line contains zero or more non-printing characters, such as space or tab, followed by a new line.

Examples

Example 1

Two paragraphs. Each starts and ends with a blank line.

Example Code:


						
This is the first sentence in this
paragraph. Paragraphs may be long
or short.
   
    In this paragraph the first line is
indented. Indented and non-indented
sentences are allowed. White space within
the paragraph lines is ignored in
defining paragraphs. Only completely blank
lines are significant.

Resources

No resources available for this technique.

(none currently listed)

Tests

Procedure

For each paragraph:

  1. Check that the paragraph is preceded by exactly one blank line, or that the paragraph is the first content in the Web page

  2. Check that the paragraph is followed by at least one blank line, or that the paragraph is the last content in the Web page.

  3. Check that no paragraph contains any blank lines

Expected Results

  • All checks above are all true for each paragraph.

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.


T2: Using standard text formatting conventions for lists

Applicability

Plain text documents. Not applicable to technologies that contain markup.

This technique relates to:

Description

The objective of this technique is to use text formatting conventions to create simple lists of related items. Hierarchical lists or nested lists cannot be represented using this technique and should be represented using a different technology.

A list is a sequence of list items. A list item is a paragraph that begins with a label. For unordered lists, asterisks, dashes, and bullet characters may be used as the label, but the same label characters must be used for all the items in a list. For ordered lists, the label may be alphabetic or numeric, and may be terminated by a period or a right parenthesis. The labels must be in ascending order, that is,

  • numbers must be in numeric order,

  • alphabetic labels must be in alphabetical order or in numeric order when interpreted as Roman numerals.

Examples

Example 1: Unordered list

Example Code:


						
- unordered list item
 
- unordered list item
 
- unordered list item

Example 2: Numeric ordered list

Example Code:


						
1. Ordered list item
 
2. Ordered list item
 
3. Ordered list item

Example 3: Roman numeral ordered list

Example Code:


						
i.   Ordered list item
 
ii.  Ordered list item
 
iii. Ordered list item
 
iv.  Ordered list item

Example 4: Alphabetic ordered list

Example Code:


						
A) Ordered list item
 
B) Ordered list item
 
C) Ordered list item

Resources

No resources available for this technique.

(none currently listed)

Tests

Procedure

For each list in the text content

  1. Check that each list item is a paragraph that starts with a label

  2. Check that the list contains no lines that are not list items

  3. Check that all list items in a list use the same style label

  4. Check that the labels in ordered lists are in sequential order

  5. Check that the labels in each unordered list are the same

Expected Results

  • All checks above are all true.

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.


T3: Using standard text formatting conventions for headings

Applicability

Plain text documents. Not applicable to technologies that contain markup.

This technique relates to:

Description

The objective of this technique is to use text formatting conventions to convey the structure of the content. Headings are used to locate and label sections of a text document, showing the organization of the document.

The beginning of a heading is indicated by

  • two blank lines preceding the heading

The end of a heading is indicated by

  • a blank line following the heading

A blank line contains any number of non-printing characters, such as space or tab, followed by a new line.

The programmatic identification of the Heading is the two blank lines preceding it and one blank line succeeding it. Text documents are necessarily void of underlying structure and so structure must be indicated in the programmatic layout for screen readers. This programmatic layout will enable screen readers to voice blank lines twice before the text that will be considered as a heading. A screen magnifier user would decipher headings by visually identifying the space before it (or their technology may have Screen reader capabilities that can identify the spaces).

Examples

Example 1

A paragraph is followed by two blank lines, then a heading, then one blank line, then another paragraph:

Example Code:


						
...this is the end of paragraph 1.


The Text of the Heading

This is the beginning of paragraph 2.


Resources

No resources available for this technique.

(none currently listed)

Tests

Procedure

For each heading in the content:

  1. Check that each heading is preceded by two blank lines

  2. Check that each heading is followed by a blank line

  3. Check that no heading contains any blank lines

Expected Results

  • All of the checks above are true.

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.