RE: SC 4.1.1 source fails but DOM passes - must a page fail?

I'd tend towards only calling out failures of SC4.1.1 if there's a
noticeable blip in the behaviour of assistive technologies.

 

In my experience, much valuable time and effort can be spent "fixing"
validation issues in either source or computed code that have absolutely no
discernible impact on accessibility, especially when the success criterion
requires that only four parsing rules are satisfied per a specification.

 

User agents are much more capable of handling even these parsing
"violations" these days so, if it has no discernible impact, then in my view
it's worth focusing on more pressing accessibility issues . 

Cheers,

Adam 

 

 

 

From: Bristow, Alan [mailto:Alan.Bristow@elections.ca] 
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2019 7:36 AM
To: 'w3c-wai-ig@w3.org'
Subject: SC 4.1.1 source fails but DOM passes - must a page fail?

 

All,

 

Tasked with declaring a page as passing or failing SC 4.1.1

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#ensure-compat-parses

I am looking for an authoritative source to back up one or other of these
two positions:

 

1. HTML source MUST validate, regardless of whether the DOM is valid once
JavaScript has loaded

2. HTML source may be INVALID as long as the DOM is valid after JavaScript
has loaded.

 

This is something that must have come up before but I am sorry to say I
cannot find the answer.

 

I suspect, since:

a). browsers change the DOM

https://css-tricks.com/dom/#article-header-id-0

and,

b). some browsers are less capable than others and so some may fail to
'mend' some invalid HTML

that I probably have to follow position 1. since it is unequivocal.

 

Thanks for any wisdom you can share.

 

Cheers,

 

Alan

 

Alan Bristow

Web Programmer

Policy and Public Affairs

Elections Canada

Desk 9-A-053

30 Victoria Street, Gatineau, QC K1A 0M6

alan.bristow@elections.ca

Tel.: 819-939-2232