RE: WCAG Checklist and checkpoint

Testing with screen readers can indicate the possible existence of some types of WCAG non-conformance, but your pass / fail decision must always be based on inspection of the user interface and the code, not on the screen reader behaviour.

It is not necessary to use a screen reader at all in a WCAG audit, and there are better ways to test all the success criteria. A major issue is that screen readers don’t give you a “true” perception of the code. Some use heuristics to hide faults (or at least try to) in order to improve the user experience. They all have bugs and Windows-based screen readers can behave differently with different browsers.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


From: Ash Ta <duc.ta.740@gmail.com>
Sent: 06 January 2021 15:34
To: WAI IG <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: WCAG Checklist and checkpoint

Hi,

Should we include screen readers issue as a failure of checkpoint in the new wcag. I find many issues such as using aria-label with aria-describedby to the same id. Using aria-label reference non-existence id. Using title and aria-describedby. And many other issues more.


Best,
Duc Ta