Edit comment LC-841 for Accessibility Guidelines Working Group

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Comment LC-841: Comment Shortname:; Commenter: Chris Ridpath <chris.ridpath@utoronto.ca> on behalf of ATRC University of Toronto; Message-id:; Section of the document concerned:

or; Refinement of the section concerned:; Status:
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Commenter's response (URI):; Comment:
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Comment Type: substantive
Comment (including rationale for proposed change):

The Success Criterion (1.3.1 level 1) that calls for the presence of labels is at a different level from the Success Criterion (2.4.5 level 3) that requires the labels actually describe the item. This applies to such items as form labels, headings, titles and table captions. This is an inducement for placeholder text and will functionally decrease accessibility. Examples: web pages with the title \"title goes here\", table captions of \"table caption\" and form control labels \"control name goes here\" are perfectly acceptable. If the requirements for the presence of the label are lower than the requirement than the label actually be descriptive it will be an incentive for authoring programs to put in placeholder text. Requiring that a label be present without a requirement that the label be useful does not make sense.

Proposed Change:

Change the level of SC 2.4.5 to level 1 (same level as SC 1.3.1).
Or remove SC 2.4.5 and modify SC 1.3.1, SC 2.4.3 and any SC that requires text so they include the text from SC 2.4.5. Example: change SC 2.4.3 so it reads \"Web units have titles that describe the web unit\".; Related issues: (space separated ids); WG Notes: [TEAMB] Discussed in the 22 February 2007 telecon: Referred back to Team B for language to close language on issues 839, 841, 1052, 1289. http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2007/02/22-wai-wcag-minutes.html Note, this response also depends on LC-838 resolution. Discussed in the 08 March 2007 telecon: RESOLUTION: SC 2.4.5 is promoted to Level 2. Change intent section to reflect provision which does not require â€œuniquenessâ€? (2.4.5 and G130). Referred back to Team B for language to close language on issues 839, 841, 1052, 1289. http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2007/03/08-wai-wcag-minutes.html {partial accept} SEE ACTIONS FOR LC-839 DONE revise the intent for G130 to remove, "Users may become disoriented when long documents contain multiple sections with headings that are the same or very similar. Therefore, headings should be distinct within the Web unit." (could be added to advisory tech on "unique") Internal WD updated 12 March 2007; Resolution: Success criteria 1.3.1 does not require the presence of labels, headings, titles, or table captions which would affect the design of the page. It only requires that if these items are present on the page, they must be coded so that the structure can be determined programmatically. A new Level AAA success criteria has been added, SC 2.4.9 "Where content is organized into sections, the sections are indicated with headings.". We have added "descriptive" to SC 2.4.2 (formerly 2.4.3) and moved it to level A. SC 2.4.6 (formerly 2.4.5) has been moved to Level AA. It addresses descriptive headings and labels, which may need to be understood in context. While headings may not have sufficient descriptive power in isolation, when viewed in the context of a structured document, they do have sufficient descriptive power.; (Please make sure the resolution is adapted for public consumption)