Re: floated lists (e.g. horizontal menus) not covered in test of H48

On Fri, Apr 27, 2012 at 2:37 AM, <noreply@w3.org> wrote:

> Name: Detlev Fischer
> Email: detlev.fischer@testkreis.de
> Affiliation: 3needs.org
> Document: TD
> Item Number: H48
> Part of Item: Applicability
> Comment Type: general comment
> Summary of Issue: floated lists (e.g. horizontal menus) not covered in
> test of H48
> Comment (Including rationale for any proposed change):
> The test procedure of H48 just checks whether list markup is used on
> things that visually appear as list. This implies that the use of lists to
> tender horizontal menus (as mentioned in example 5 of H48) is not covered
> in the test. It seems navigation menus just using divs instead of list
> markup would pass 1.3.1.
> The same might apply to things like popup menus that may not be perceived
> as lists (no bullets, no numbering), but the case is clearer for horizontal
> arrangements.
>
> Proposed Change:
> In terms of a11y it is important to have menus marked up as list. For
> evaluation purposes, it would be good to have a technique or failure that
> reflects that. The H48 test procedure might be amended to include a check
> of navigation menus (incl. horizontal ones) but this may easily become too
> prescriptive. Not sure...
>
> ================================
Response from the Working Group
================================
Thank you for your comment. As you correctly pointed out, example 5
includes a reference to horizontal menus, and it is therefore made clear
that horizontal menus are, in fact, included in this technique. Regarding
the test procedure, we feel it is more appropriate to avoid mention of
specific examples. Furthermore, we feel that a horizontal menu is visually
presented as a list, since a connection between the menu items is implied
by such a presentation, and that the test procedure does not exclude such a
menu.

Regarding drafting a failure, we do not feel that the lack of list markup
as dictated by this technique would necessarily lead to a failure, as there
might be other means of satisfying this success criterion, especially when
dealing with navigation menus.

Loretta Guarino Reid, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Gregg Vanderheiden, WCAG WG Co-Chair
Michael Cooper, WCAG WG Staff Contact


On behalf of the WCAG Working Group