2.5.3: label in name-New SC in the WCAG 2.1

Success Criterion 2.5.3 Label in Name (Level A): For user interface components with labels that include text or images of text, the name contains the text that is presented visually.

A best practice is to have the text of the label at the start of the name

 

Description

 

There are certain group of people with disabilities, especially who are having learning and physical challenges, use speech recognition software like dragon naturally speaking to access the computers. Let us understand what speech recognition software is all about. Speech recognition software converts speech to text as opposed to the screen readers. Those users of speech recognition software access the computers with the speech input and there are voice commands to perform the regular activities on the computer like opening MS word document, , opening files/folder, sending the email, browsing the web and so on.. now that we understand that how those users of speech recognition software access the computers. On the similar lines, when user is trying to activate the send button by using voice commands after composing the email, for the instance, send button does not get activated in spite of the multiple attempts. The reason could be that, even though there is a visible text as send for the user interface control but the control may not have same text as an accessible name in the accessibility tree rather control has the submit as an accessible name in the accessible tree. As visible name of the control is send and accessible name of the control is submit, speech recognition software never understand and never activate this control  when user is trying to activate send button with the speech input. This creates problem and intern it impacts the ability to use the control itself for those users of speech recognition software.

In order to address this problem, WCAG 2.1 introduce this new SC. The intent of this Success Criterion (SC) is to help ensure that people with disabilities who rely on visual labels can also use those labels programmatically. In other words, the accessible name of the control must contain the text that is visible on the control but It does not mean that accessible name of the control need not to be identical with the visible label of the control. In addition, when the accessible name is different from visible label of the control then it is high chance that speech input users may accidently activate the hidden commands. As a result, speech input users get confused and disoriented with the unexpected actions. Text to speech(screen reader) users get best experience when accessible name of the control is matched with the visible name of the control.

Pass scenarios

  • Accessible name of the control matches visible label of the control
  • the words of the visible label in the accessible name are not scattered and are in the same order as they are in the visible label

 

References

 

2 Replies to “2.5.3: label in name-New SC in the WCAG 2.1”

  1. i was not able to understand this criteria on WCAG, but here by the send button example i understood this criteria. Thanks for this post.

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