Draft of general technique for SC 1.3.6

Here is a draft of a general technique for success criterion 1.3.6: 
Information required to understand and operate content does not rely on 
shape, size, visual location, or orientation of components. (Level 3) 

Providing textual identification of items that otherwise rely only on 
shape, size and/or position to be understood. 

Applicability
        All technologies which allow the creation of various shaped 
objects and backgrounds or allow objects to be explicitly positioned 
within the delivery unit. 

Description
        Creating objects of varying shapes, sizes and locations within the 
delivery unit is useful for providing visual and navigational clues. 
Additional ways to convey information must also be provided.  For example:
        -providing a textual description of the object which describes its 
function.
        -providing a textual label that identifies the object.
        -providing both textual and/or shape size, orientation or position 
information.

Example 1:
        A round green button is provided on a form to submit the form and 
move onto the next step in a progression.  The button is labeled with the 
text "go."  The instructions would state, "to submit the form press the 
round, green button which is labeled, "go".  This includes both shape, 
color and textual information to locate the button. 

Example 2: 
        A shopping cart provides a numbered list of items the user has 
selected for purchase.  A user may remove an item from the shopping cart 
by activating a button to the right of each item which is marked with an 
image of a circle with a slash through it.  Next to each button is also 
the textual description, "remove item" followed by the item number.  The 
instructions indicate, "to remove an item from your cart, press the button 
to the right of the item which is marked with a circle and slash through 
it.  The description of the button also contains the item number."  This 
example uses shape (the circle with a slash through it), location, and a 
textual description to allow all users to locate the correct button.

Example 3: 
        A real estate site provides a  bar chart of average housing prices 
in several regions of the United States.  The description of the bar chart 
indicates that the legend for the graph is provided to the right of the 
graph under the heading, "Legend for Regional Home Prices".  The location 
and the text heading  are provided to allow users to find and navigate to 
the legend.  In addition, the legend uses both colors and hatch marks to 
indicate the different bars and each bar is individually labeled within 
the graph. 

Resources:

Tests:
        1) Manually review the delivery unit for items which are 
differentiated by shape, size, or position.  For each such item determine:
                a) if the item can be located and identified using only 
text without any knowledge of the shape, size, or relative position of the 
item. 
                Fail: the item can not be identified using only text.  Add 
a textual description to the reference which makes identification 
possible.
                Pass: the item can be identified using only text. 
Additional shape, size and/or relative position information may also be 
included.

Procedure

Expected Result:
        All items in the content can be located and identified using only 
text without any knowledge of the shape, size or relative position of the 
item.
 
Test Files
Becky Gibson
Web Accessibility Architect
                                                       
IBM Emerging Internet Technologies
5 Technology Park Drive
Westford, MA 01886
Voice: 978 399-6101; t/l 333-6101
Email: gibsonb@us.ibm.com

Received on Tuesday, 3 January 2006 23:38:28 UTC