RE: Using the word 'below' as a visual characteristic

The understanding document for SC 1.3.3 indicates that the words above and below would pass if used correctly to refer to content before or after (when such language references are commonly understood. (https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/sensory-characteristics.html)

In some languages, it is commonly understood that "above" refers to the content previous to that point in the content and "below" refers to the content after that point. In such languages, if the content being referenced is in the appropriate place in the reading order and the references are unambiguous, statements such as "choose one of the links below" or "all of the above" would conform to this Success Criterion.

Jonathan

From: John Foliot <john@foliot.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, June 8, 2021 7:40 AM
To: Louise Lister <Louise.Lister@iop.org>
Cc: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Subject: Re: Using the word 'below' as a visual characteristic

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Hi Louise,

While definitely not "gospel", I for one would find this acceptable, as in your context "below" is effectively synonymous with "later in the document", which is both accurate and true.

While I am not a daily screen reader, I nonetheless find this acceptable in 'spirit': the user-experience for daily screen reader users is essentially linear/vertical - what I've heard, what I am hearing, and what I've yet to hear. 3 dimensional references (i.e. "to the left", "to the right", "next to") is where you start getting into confusion/issues.

My personal $0.02 FWIW.

JF

On Tue, Jun 8, 2021 at 6:55 AM Louise Lister <Louise.Lister@iop.org<mailto:Louise.Lister@iop.org>> wrote:

Hello all,

I hope that you are all having good weather wherever you are!

I’ve just been reviewing our website for over reliance on visual characteristics (shape, size, colour, position) and noticed that we use the term ‘below’ a bit.

For example:

“Please see below a list of …”
“See guidance notes below”

Can someone tell me if the use of the word ‘below’ equals an over reliance on ‘position’, and would fail a WCAG check? I’m hoping this is okay as there’s may not be a succinct alternative.

Thank you for your help!

Kind regards
Louise

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John Foliot | Senior Industry Specialist, Digital Accessibility
"I made this so long because I did not have time to make it shorter." - Pascal "links go places, buttons do things"