Techniques for WCAG 2.0

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H50: Using map to group links

Applicability

HTML and XHTML

This technique relates to:

Description

The objective of this technique is to demonstrate how to group links into logical sets using the map element. When links are grouped into logical sets (for example, in a navigation bar or main menu that appears on every page in a site) they should be marked up as a unit. Navigation bars are usually the first thing someone encounters on a page. People who are sighted are often able to ignore navigation parts and start reading the content of the page. Someone using a screen reader must first listen to the text of each link in the navigation bar before reading the interesting content. This technique uses the map element to mark up content so that a user with a screen reader can jump over the navigation bar and avoid reading all of the links.

Examples

Example 1: Using map to group links

In this example, the map element groups a set of links, the title attribute identifies it as a navigation bar.

Example Code:

 <map title="Navigation Bar">
  <p>
    [<a href="home.html">Home</a>] 
    [<a href="search.html">Search</a>] 
    [<a href="new.html">New and highlighted</a>] 
    [<a href="sitemap.html">Site map</a>]
  </p>
 </map>  

Resources

Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.

Tests

Procedure

Examine the content for anchor elements which are to be grouped together .

  1. Check that the anchor elements are grouped using map elements.

Expected Results

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.