RE: Labels

Regardless, it's a very ugly pattern . 

 

just because there's a heading immediately above something, doesn't - in my
view at least - satisfy 1.3.1. 

 

From a usability perspective, it means I(20 years plus screen reader user)
need to be using a navigational technique at that point in the view which
employs headings or start pressing keystrokes that can reveal known
programmatic relationships or - worst case - move focus off a control to use
cursor keys to explore the immediate context. 

 

Also, what does  "non-descriptive out of context" mean? 

 

In my view, context isn't a criterion for 2.4.6 - only that a heading or
label describes a topic or purpose. And, because success criterion 2.4.6 is
normatively ambiguous, 'remove' can describe a purpose seemingly perfectly
adequately if not accurately.

 

And label-in-name isn't relevant because the label is in the name - it's not
about whether the label and/or name is accurate. 

 

I'll probably receive howls of puritanical protest, but - thanks to another
normative ambiguity - it could be argued that the accessible name of these
controls does not describe their purpose in a way that is equivalent as per
success criterion 1.1.1 .. 

 

In terms of solution, a little bit of JavaScript that climbs the DOM looking
for the h2 above each button and then adding its text node to an aria-label
on the button (or using aria-labelledby in a  similar fashion) will improve
the usability for people using screen readers.

 

This still leaves the issue of managing focus as per 2.4.3 when the button
is activated. 

 

 

 

 

 

From: Ms J <ms.jflz.woop@gmail.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2025 7:12 PM
To: 'w3c-wai-ig' <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: RE: Labels

 

Hi all

 

 thank you, so for context, here is a sort of motivating example

 

<h1>shopping cart</h1>

<h2>Apples</h2>

<button>remove</button>

<span>these apples are delicious </span>

<h2>Bananas</h2>

<button>remove</button>

<span>these bananas are yellow </span>

 

my 3 questions are would the remove buttons fail

1.	Headings and labels as for a screen reader user these are
non-descriptive out of context?

2.	1.3.1 - in this case as the sections are marked up with headings, I
would say they perhaps don't fail 1.3.1?

3.	label in name? Because the label which allows you to identify the
purpose of the control is not just the text 'remove' but also the heading
text allowing me to identify what I will be removing

 thank you

 

Sarah

 

Sent from Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>