Guideline 12. Provide context and orientation information
Source Article: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/#gl-complex-elements
There seem to be two main points of focus in Guideline 12. The first, which seems to be evident in everything, and applies to everything, is that clear text is the only real compatible content. The second is that users need to understand how things are grouped, have an overview or what they are looking at, and have further guidance if necessary.
My first point may seem vague, but it is meant to be all encompassing. For images, we need to include ALT and TITLE. For a table, we need to have a CAPTION. We must include a TITLE in a LINKS or a FRAME. These text equivalents need to be clear and descriptive. Why I ask. It is because for so many different disabilities, a web page must be able to boil down to plain and simple text if it is to be widely usable. I liked the quick test included in the guideline, if you can't read it over the phone, it probably isn't clear enough.
The second aspect was that all things must be well grouped on the page. Links that are alike should be together as well as frames that go together. Text should have clear division that not only breaks up the content but makes it scan able as well. Here is a brief list of good suggestions for grouping and dividing:
- Use FIELDSET to group form controls into semantic units and describe the group with the LEGEND element.
- Use OPTGROUP to organize long lists of menu options into smaller groups.
- Use tables for tabular data and describe the table with CAPTION.
- Group table rows and columns with THEAD, TBODY, TFOOT, and COLGROUP.
- Nest lists with UL, OL, and DL.
- Use section headings (H1 - H6) to create structured documents and break up long stretches of text. Refer to the following section for more information.
- Break up lines of text into paragraphs (with the P element).
- Group related links. Refer to the section Grouping and bypassing links
To make my page more scan able, understandable, and usable by those with and without handicaps, I will group like objects, divide unlike objects, and include clear text equivalents for all not-text elements.
