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IITAA View of Best Practice Rules

Best Practices Mapping to Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act (IITAA)

IITAA Priority Result Rule FAE Firefox
Accessibility
Extension

1.1 Use valid, standard web programming code.
Required Fail/Pass
Each page must include a DOCTYPE declaration to facilitate rendering and validation.
 1.0
Required Fail/Pass
The character encoding of each page should be specified within the value of the content attribute (using charset=) on a meta element that also includes an http-equiv attribute set to "content-type".
1.0

1.2 Use appropriate markup to convey document structure.
Required Fail/Pass
The font and center elements must not be used for text styling, instead use structural markup should be used with CSS for styling.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The b element must not be used to bold text content, instead use heading ( h1-h6) elements for heading text or the strong element for emphasizing words, phrases or sentences.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The i element must not be used to italicize text content, instead use heading ( h1-h6) elements for heading text or the em element for emphasizing words, phrases or sentences.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The u element must not be used to underline text content, instead use heading ( h1-h6) elements for heading text or the em or strong element for emphasizing words, phrases or sentences.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass/Fail
Use CSS properties instead of tables and nested tables to visually layout blocks of related content for graphical renderings. CSS based layout designs support a wider range of rendering technologies (interoperability) than table based designs. People with disabilities use a wider range of technologies than the general population to access the web and the use of CSS helps insure that their technologies will be compatible with the page.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
Each img element with an empty alt attribute should be removed; CSS techniques should be used provide the graphical styling.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
Each img element with width or height less than 8 pixels should be removed; CSS techniques should be used instead to provide the graphical styling.
Required Warning/Pass
Each area element must have an alt attribute.

1.3 Provide meaningful page titles.
Required Fail/Pass
The page must contain exactly one title element.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The title element must contain text content
 1.0 1.5
Required Check/Pass
The first 60 characters of title element content for pages within the same domain should be unique.
Desirable Check/Pass
The last h1 element content for pages within the same domain should be unique.

1.4 Use headings to introduce sections and sub-sections, and use them in the correct order.
Required Fail/Pass
The page must contain at least one h1 element.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The h1 element must contain text content.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
Heading elements that follow the last h1 must be properly nested.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
All subheadings ( h2...h6) must contain text content.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The h2 element or another heading element must precede ul and ol elements that appear to be navigation bars.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The h2 element or another heading element must precede map elements containing area elements that appear to be a navigation bars.
1.0 1.5
Desirable Warning/Pass
The page should contain no more than two h1 elements.
1.0 1.5
Desirable Warning/Pass
The text content of headings of the same level within the same section should be unique.
 1.5
Desirable Check/Pass
The text content of headings should be concise (less than 65 characters).

1.5 Use lists to identify series of related items, including navigation menus.
Required Warning/Pass
If consecutive p elements include a string of non-space characters followed by a period or right paranthesis character (")"), the markup may be representing an ordered list of items. If the markup is representing an ordered or other type of list, it should use HTML list markup with CSS for styling.
Required Warning/Pass
If consecutive p elements contain an img element with the alt attribute content that includes a single character or the null content, it may be representing a bulleted list of items. If the markup is representing a bulleted or other type of list, it should use HTML list markup and CSS, for incorporating the custom bullet.
Desirable Check/Pass
Most pages should contain at least one navigation bar.
Desirable Check/Pass
Nested lists deeper than 5 levels are difficult for people to understand, especially screen reader users. Reorganize the structure of the nested lists into sections that can be identified using meaningful section titles using heading markup.

2.1 Use text to display text, unless formatting that cannot be achieved with CSS is required.
Required Warning/Pass
The text content of the h1 element should match all or part of the text content of the title element.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
The text content of an h1 element should not only come from the alt attribute of img elements.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
The text content of an subheading element ( h2-h6) should not only come from the alt attribute value of img elements.
1.0 1.5

2.2 Use relative sizes for fonts.

No rules at this time for 2.2

2.3 Identify the language of text.
Required Fail/Pass
Each page must have a lang attribute on its html element whose value is a valid two-character language code.
1.0 1.5
Required Check
If there is text content within a page that is different than the default language of the page, the lang attribute must be used on a container element for the text content and the value of the lang attribute must be set to the language of the content.

2.4 Use images instead of "ASCII art."

No rules at this time for 2.4

3.1 Do not convey information with color alone.

Required Check
Information cannot be represented by color alone, there needs to be a text or text equivalent for the information.
 1.5

3.2 Use contrasting foreground and background colors.
Required Check
Text content foreground and background colors of text must have sufficient color contrast to be readible by people with visual impairments.
1.5

4.1 Provide "alternate text" for all images.
Required Fail/Pass
Every img element must have alt attribute.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
If the content of the alt attribute is not empty, it should contain at least 7 characters and less than 90 characters. The text should provide people who cannot see the image with an orientation to the content and the purpose of the image in the web resource.
1.5
Required Warning/Pass
The alt attribute content should not include file name of the image.
1.5
Required Warning/Pass
The alt attribute content should not include information that is redundant with the img element.
1.5
Desirable Warning/Pass
For links that include an img element and text content, the alt attribute content of the img element should not repeat the text content of the link. Images that are the used as icons to help users identify the purpose of a link should have their alt attribute set to empty or be included in the graphical rendering as a CSS background image.
1.5

4.2 Provide full descriptions for graphs, diagrams, and other meaningful images.

No rules at this time for 4.2

5.1 Provide alternate text for each area in client-side image maps.
Desirable Warning/Pass
Each area element should have a redundant text link ( a element) with href values matching the href values of the area elements.
1.0 1.5

5.2 Use client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps unless areas cannot be defined with available shapes.

No rules at this time for 5.2

6.1 Do not convey information with sound alone.

No rules at this time for 6.1

6.2 Do not automatically play audio.
Required Check
Video, audio and Flash Media objects must not automatically play sound when the page is loaded.

6.3 Provide text transcripts for audio containing speech when it is provided to the public and/or required to be viewed by employees.
Required Check
Video, audio and Flash Media objects must have synchronized text captions or text transcripts.

7.1 Provide synchronized captions for all multimedia that contains essential auditory information when it is provided to the public and/or required to be viewed by employees.
Required Check
Video, audio and Flash Media objects must have synchronized text captions or text transcripts.

7.2 Provide audio descriptions for all multimedia that contains essential visual information when it is provided to the public and/or required to be viewed by employees.
Required Check
Video, audio and Flash Media objects must have audio descriptions if the it contains essential visual information that is not discernable from the dialog or audio track.

8.1 Provide a means of pausing any moving, blinking, scrolling, or auto-updating information.
Required Check
Video, audio, Flash Media objects should have controls to pause, play, stop and restart.

8.2 Do not include content that flashes faster than 3 times per second.
Required Fail/Pass
The blink and marquee elements must not be used. Blinking and moving text are an accessibility problems for people with photosenstive epilepsy and visual impairments.
1.0 1.5

9.1 Make sure that links are understandable out of context.

Required Warning/Pass
Link text should be meaningful when taken out of context; therefore, links that point to different URIs should have different text contents.
1.5

9.2 Provide a means of skipping past repetitive navigation links.

Required Check/Pass
The first link on a page should be a skip navigation link that contains the word "skip" and the href attribute should point to an internal destination. The skip navigation link should be visible to all users when the link has focus and must comply with other link rules.
Desirable Warning/Pass
accesskey attribute values should be unique.
1.0 1.5
Desirable Pass/Check
accesskey attribute values should not interfere with Microsoft Internet Explorer menu shortcuts.

9.3 Avoid using small links.

Required Warning/Pass
An image that is the entire content of a link should be at least 16x16 pixels in size.
 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
The text content of a link should be at least 4 characters in length when rendered graphically.
 1.5
Required Check/Pass
Small links should not be placed close together.

9.4 Ensure that same-page links move keyboard focus as well as screen focus.

Required Check/Pass
The target of internal links need to include a tabindex attribute with the value set to "-1". This is required for Internet Explorer to move keyboard focus when the internal link is activated.

10.1 Provide labels or titles for all form fields.

Required Fail/Pass
The elements input[type="text | password | checkbox | radio | file"], select and textarea must have:
  1. label element content that has the label.for attribute referencing the id attribute of the form control element, or
  2. title attribute content on the form control element itself.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The element input[type="image"] must have:
  1. alt attribute content on the form control element itself, or
  2. title attribute content on the form control element itself.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The elements input[type="button" | submit | reset"] must have:
  1. value attribute content on the form control element itself, or
  2. title attribute content on the form control element itself.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
Each label and legend element must contain content that helps identify the purpose of the form control on the page. If the title attribute is defined for an input. select, textarea or button element, it must also contain content since it will be used by assistive technologies as part of the effective label for the form control.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
If a form control has an id attribute its value must be unique on the page.
1.5
Desirable Warning/Pass
Each effective label within a page should be unique.
1.5
Desirable Check
Required form controls should have the word "required" as part of the effective label.
1.5
Desirable Check
Invalid form controls should have the word "invalid" as part of the effective label.
1.5
Desirable Check
When content of a form is validated as the user submits the form, a response page that provides a list of links with each link text describing the problem with each invalid form field should follow.
Desirable Check
When content of a form is validated as the user fills out each form field, an alert box must indicate if the input is invalid as the user tries to move the focus to the next form control.

10.2 Provide legends for groups of form fields.

No rules at this time for 10.2

10.3 Ensure that form fields are in a logical tab order.

Required Check
Ensure that form fields are in a logical tabbing order.

10.4 Avoid placing non-focusable text between form fields.
Required Check/Pass
Text content that cannot receive the focus should not be placed between form controls.

10.5 Ensure that text in form fields can be enlarged.
Required Check/Pass
The elements input, select, textarea and button should allow text size to change with the zoom setting of the browser.

11.1 Identify a header cell for each column and row in simple data tables.
Required Fail/Pass
For each data table, the first cell in each column must be a th element, and each row must contain at least one th element.
1.0 1.5

11.2 Identify relationships in complex data tables using id and headers attributes.
Required Fail/Pass
Each th element in a complex data table must have ad id attribute whose value is unique relative to all ids on the page.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
Each td element in a complex data table must have a headers attribute that references the id attributes of associated th elements.
1.0 1.5

11.3 Provide summary attributes for data tables.
Required Fail/Pass
Each data table must have a nonempty summary attribute.
1.0 1.5
Desirable Warning/Pass
The summary attribute value for each data table on a page should be unique.
1.0 1.5

12.1 Provide concise, unique, and understandable titles for frames.

Required Fail/Pass
Every frame element must have a title attribute must have content that describes the purpose of the frame.
1.0 1.5
Required Fail/Pass
The title attribute content for each frame must be unique within a frameset.
1.0 1.5

12.2 Avoid using hidden, empty, or non-essential frames.
Required Warning/Pass
Hidden or empty frames should not be used.

13.1 Ensure that scripted functions are usable with assistive technologies.

No rules at this time for 13.1

13.2 Ensure that significant interactions can be performed with both keyboard and mouse.
Required Warning/Pass
Every onClick event handler should be on a focusable element.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
Every onmouseover event handler that is on a focusable element must have a corresponding onfocus event handler.
1.0 1.5
Required Warning/Pass
Every onmouseout event handler that is on a focusable element must have a corresponding onblur event handler.
1.0 1.5
Required Check/Pass
The functionality provided by onmousedown, onmouseup and onmousemove event handlers should have keyboard equivalents to perform the same functions that can be achieved with the mouse actions.
Desirable Warning/Pass
Every onmouseover or onmouseout event handler that is not on a focusable element should use CSS :hover psuedo element to provide the stylistic changes.
1.0 1.5

13.3 Avoid changing focus unexpectedly.
Required Check/Pass
onChange event handler should not be used with the select element to cause a automatic change of focus or load a page.

13.4 Avoid changing content unexpectedly.

No rules at this time for 13.4

14.1 Use accessible embedded objects whenever possible.

No rules at this time for 14.1

14.2 If an inaccessible object, applet, or plug-in must be used, provide an accessible alternative that includes the same content and functionality.

No rules at this time for 14.2

15.1 Provide natively accessible downloadable documents whenever possible.

No rules at this time for 15.1

15.2 If a downloadable document cannot be made natively accessible, provide an accessible alternative that includes the same content and functionality.

No rules at this time for 15.2

16.1 Notify users of time limits and provide a means to extend time if possible.

No rules at this time for 16.1

16.2 Do not automatically refresh the current page.

No rules at this time for 16.2

17.1 When using tables for layout, ensure that reading order is logical.

Required Check/Pass
When tables are used for layout, make sure the reading order makes sense when layout table markup is removed.

17.2 When using style sheets for layout, ensure that reading order is logical.
Required Check/Pass
When CSS absolute positioning is used for layout, make sure the reading order makes sense when stylesheets are disabled.

17.3 Avoid horizontal scrolling.

No rules at this time for 17.3

18.1 Use separate accssible versions only as a last resort.

No rules at this time for 18.1

Rule Evaluation Definitions

Coding patterns can be assigned the following labels for purposes of evaluation. The labels are based on the reliability of the coding pattern to identify known and possible accessibility problems.

Pass
Coding practices that support web accessibility best practices for improving the functional accessibility of web resources are found.
Coding practices that support the implementation of the features W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Federal Section 508 Web Accessibility Standards and Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act are found.
Coding practices that are known to cause accessibility problems are not found.
Fail
Coding practices that support the implementation of the web accessibility best practices to support accessibility guidelines and standards are not found.
Coding practices that are known to cause accessibility problems have been found.
Warning
Coding practices that are known to improve accessibility but are not directly required by the Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act.
Coding practices are available to the developer to improve accessibility to pass the requirement and make their web pages more standards compliant.
Check
Coding practice may be an accessibility problem, but cannot be determined through analysis of markup alone. Manual tests needs to be performed to verify accessibility of the markup.
A coding practice requirement for accessibility may be outdated or there is not a consensus that the requirement is currently a web accessibility best practice.
NA
The page does not contain markup related to the rule and the markup is not required for accessibility. For example, when images are not used in a web page, the rules for image text equivalents do not apply to the page.

HTML Best Practices

Working Group