Web checklist

Checkpoint 1.3g: Sensory characteristics

Instructions provided for understanding and operating content do not rely solely on sensory characteristics of components such as shape, size, visual location, orientation, or sound.

Rationale

The purpose of this checkpoint is to ensure that items within a Web page are referenced in the content in ways that do not require the user to have sensory perception in order to understand the content. Content should not rely on size, sound, shape, or location in order to be understood.

Required development techniques

Compliance with this checkpoint requires all of the following techniques be met. These techniques are defined in the WCAG 2.0 Level A Success Criterion for Guideline 1.3.3 (link resides outside of ibm.com).

Textual Identification: Provide textual identification of items that otherwise rely only on sensory information to be understood.

Examples for General developers

1. Textual Identification: Provide textual identification of items that otherwise rely only on sensory information to be understood.

To comply with this technique, all of the following examples must be implemented.

Example 1

The Human Ability and Accessibility Center Web site uses a left navigation bar to help users easily traverse our site. When referring to items in the left navigation, we can say "Please choose the navigation selection from the left navigation bar."

Example 2

Another example of this technique is when using a Go button on a page; instructions for using that button should not rely solely on sensory perception. Instead of saying "Please press the Green button when you are ready to proceed", the correct way to refer to the button is "Please press the Green Go button when you are ready to proceed." This allows color blind and blind users to understand the instructions without needing to perceive the color.

Recommended development techniques

The techniques above are required; the following techniques are recommended to enhance accessibility:

See WCAG 2.0 Additional Techniques (Advisory) for 1.3.3 for a list of techniques and examples (link resides outside of ibm.com).

Required test techniques

The following manual test techniques are required to test this checkpoint.

Required accessibility verification test techniques

Test tools:

Install the following tools to test this checkpoint:

A tool that removes the CSS from a Webpage (such as, Kill Styles Sheets if testing with Miscrosoft Internet Explorer™)

Required accessibility verification test techniques:

Use the following accessibility verification test (AVT) techniques to validate the Web content. It is recommended that these tests be performed in order.

**1. Manual test:**
Action	Result
Verify the compliance criteria for this technique as follows. Identify any elements on the Web page that rely on sensory characteristics of components to provide instructions for understanding and operating content (E.g., the big round button at the bottom of the page on the left). For such cases, verify that a textual identification is also provided, to allow a user to find the element in the absence of the sensory information (E.g., "select the GO button, which is the big round button at the bottom of the page on the left"). (For better understanding see the required development technique examples above.)	Pass: All applicable compliance criteria in the action column to the left are verified to be true. Fail: Any failure from applicable compliance criteria in the action column to the left.

Last updated May 28, 2009.

W3C Recommendation 11 December 2008: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ (link resides outside of ibm.com)
Copyright 1994-2009 W3C (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, Keio University), All Rights Reserved.

Checkpoint 1.3f

Web checklist

Checkpoint 1.4a