Understanding Success Criterion 2.4.6 [Labels Descriptive]
Intent of this Success Criterion
The intent of this success criterion is to help users understand what information is contained in Web pages and how that information is organized. When headings are clear and descriptive, users can find the information they seek more easily, and they can understand the relationships between different parts of the content more easily. Descriptive labels help users identify specific components within the content.
Specific Benefits of Success Criterion 2.4.6:
Descriptive headings are especially helpful for users who have disabilities that make reading slow and for people with limited short-term memory. These people benefit when section titles make it possible to predict what each section contains.
People who have difficulty using their hands or who experience pain when doing so will benefit from techniques that reduce the number of keystrokes required to reach the content they need.
This success criterion helps people who use screen readers by ensuring that labels and headings are meaningful when read out of context, for example, in a Table of Contents, or when jumping from heading to heading within a page.
This success criterion may also help users with low vision who can see only a few words at a time.
Examples of Success Criterion 2.4.6
A news site.
The home page of a news site lists the headlines for the top stories of the hour. Under each heading are the first 35 words of the story and a link to the full article. Each headline gives a clear idea of the article's subject.
A guide on how to write well
A guide on writing contains the following section titles: How To Write Well, Cut Out Useless Words, Identify Unnecessary Words, etc. The section headings are clear and concise and the structure of the information is reflected in the structure of the headings.
Example 3: Consistent headings in different articles
A Web site contains papers from a conference. Submissions to the conference are required to have the following organization: Summary, Introduction, [other sections unique to this article], Conclusion, Author Biography, Glossary, and Bibliography. The title of each Web page clearly identifies the article it contains, creating a useful balance between the uniqueness of the articles and the consistency of the section headings.
Related Resources
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.
How Users Read on the Web A study showing that most users scan Web pages rather than reading them word by word.
Applying Writing Guidelines to Web Pages A report on the effects of making Web sites concise, easy to scan, and objective.
Techniques and Failures for Success Criterion 2.4.6 [Labels Descriptive]
Each numbered item in this section represents a technique or combination of techniques that the WCAG Working Group deems sufficient for meeting this success criterion. The techniques listed only satisfy the success criterion if all of the WCAG 2.0 conformance requirements have been met.
Sufficient Techniques
Note: Headings and labels must be programmatically determined, per success criterion 1.3.1.
Common Failures Identified by the Working Group
The following are common mistakes that are considered failures of Success Criterion 2.4.6 by the WCAG Working Group.
(No failures currently documented)
Additional Techniques (Advisory) for 2.4.6
Although not required for conformance, the following additional techniques should be considered in order to make content more accessible. Not all techniques can be used or would be effective in all situations.
Using unique section headings in a Web Page (future link)
Starting section headings with unique information (future link)
Key Terms
- label
text or other component with a text alternative that is presented to a user to identify a component within Web content