Main Page/SidebarNavResponse

Thank you for submitting this technique. The working group has reviewed it and has the following feedback:

1. This is not a sufficient technique for SC 2.4.6, which requires that headings and labels be descriptive, but does not require that they be present on the page. As such, SC 2.4.6 addresses the text used for the heading or label.
2. This could be an advisory technique, that is, a technique that is not sufficient for one of the success criteria, but which may make the contents more accessible. However, it is still not clear which success criteria this should be advisory to. Possibly to Success Criterion 2.4.10 (Section Headings are used to organize the content) or to Guideline 2.4 (Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are).
3. We have some concerns about using invisible text in CSS, especially with ARIA landmarks on the horizon. The CSS for hiding them is not 100% stable. Especially in right-to-left layouts, there are problems which left-to-right layouts don't have. There are also ever changing decisions by screen readers about what patterns they support. This technique would need to include the technical details for how to hide the text using CSS.
4. We also have concerns with requiring level 3 headings, rather than whatever heading element works in the context of the page structure.
5. The related techniques do not seem relevant to this technique, in that they are not presenting alternative techniques for addressing this requirement.
6. The test procedure should describe what needs to be true of the coding, not how to test operationally. While we find it necessary to provide operational tests for general techniques, they are less reliable than tests that focus on the underlying technology. See the published CSS techniques for examples of how to describe CSS tests.

If you would like to revise the technique to address these issues, we would be happy to reconsider it.