Do icons fall under - 1.3.3 question for shapes/icons alone that are used everywhere now but were not back in 2008

I’m surprised I’ve not heard back from anyone on this other than Patrick ad Jon.

Has this ever been considered from a cognitive user’s view point and needs?

Regards,

Alan

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: ALAN SMITH
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 7:06 PM
To: Jonathan Avila; w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: RE: Correction: 1.3.3 question for shapes/icons alone that are used everywhere now but were not back in 2008

Does anyone else have any wisdom on this?
The “F26: Failure of Success Criterion 1.3.3 due to using a graphical symbol alone to convey information” 
“The objective of this technique is to show how using a graphical symbol to convey information can make content difficult to comprehend. A graphical symbol may be an image, an image of text or a pictorial or decorative character symbol (glyph) which imparts information nonverbally. Examples of graphical symbols include an image of a red circle with a line through it, a "smiley" face, or a glyph which represents a check mark, arrow, or other symbol but is not the character with that meaning. Assistive technology users may have difficulty determining the meaning of the graphical symbol. If a graphical symbol is used to convey information, provide an alternative using features of the technology or use a different mechanism that can be marked with an alternative to represent the graphical symbol. For example, an image with a text alternative can be used instead of the glyph.”

This says to me “icons”.

This may be a “eureka” moment if icons need more information in order to pass 1.3.3.
Thank you.
Alan


Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Jonathan Avila
Sent: Monday, April 4, 2016 5:32 PM
To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: Re: Correction: 1.3.3 question for shapes/icons alone that are used everywhere now but were not back in 2008

It's my reading of 1.3.3 that it only applies to instructions that reference other content by shape.  That is it would fail if you said click the square symbol.  

Jon

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 4, 2016, at 3:59 PM, Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>> On 04/04/2016 20:51, ALAN SMITH wrote:
>> My bad, 1.3.3 as it deals with shapes.
> 
> Doing a formal reading of the wording of 1.3.3, I'd say your examples would also likely fail 1.3.3 (though I'll admit to not having bothered in the past to mark those situations as failures of 1.3.3 as they're usually already covered by 1.1.1, 3.3.2 and 4.1.2), and instead reserve 1.3.3 for more general cases of shapes (not relating to controls or icons) used to convey meaning (e.g. a series of <div>s with lots of CSS styling to make up a sort of graph/visualisation).
> 
> P
> -- 
> Patrick H. Lauke
> 
> www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
> http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
> twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke
>