Proposed Block of repeated content is collapsible

Description

This rule checks that repeated blocks of content are collapsible

Applicability

This rule applies to any HTML web page.

Expectation

For each block of repeated content in each test target, which is before (in the flat tree) at least one node of non-repeated content after repeated content, all the following are true:

there exists an instrument to make all nodes in this block not visible; and
there exists an instrument to remove all nodes in this block from the accessibility tree.

Background

Assumptions

There are no assumptions.

Accessibility Support

There are no accessibility support issues known.

Usually the same instrument removes both visibility and inclusion in the accessibility tree of a block of repeated content. That instrument may remove all blocks of repeated content. If there is no block of repeated content before the non-repeated content the rule passes.

Technique SCR28: Using an expandable and collapsible menu to bypass block of content does not have any requirements concerning the location of the instruments in relation to the block of repeated content they control, hence this rule doesn’t. It is likely a good idea to either keep each instrument close to the start of the block of repeated content it controls; or to group them all in one place near the start of the document. Notably, instruments located after (in reading order) the block they collapse are likely not satisfying Success Criterion 2.4.1 Bypass blocks, which this rule is designed for. Thus, it is possible to pass this rule without satisfying Success Criterion 2.4.1 Bypass blocks.

Bibliography

Technique SCR28: Using an expandable and collapsible menu to bypass block of content

Accessibility Requirements Mapping

SCR28: Using an expandable and collapsible menu to bypass block of content
- Learn more about technique SCR28
- Not required for conformance to any W3C accessibility recommendation.
- Outcome mapping:
  - Any failed outcomes: technique is not satisfied
  - All passed outcomes: technique needs further testing
  - An inapplicable outcome: technique needs further testing

Input Aspects

The following aspects are required in using this rule.

Test Cases

These HTML, Javascript, and CSS files are used in several examples:

File /test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html:

<html>
	<head>
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 2</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<h1>Content</h1>
			<ol>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter1.html">Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a>Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<aside id="bio-translator">
			<h1>About the translator</h1>
			<p>Yu Sumei is a professor of English at East China Normal University.</p>
		</aside>
		<aside id="about-book">
			<h1>About the book</h1>
			<p>The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a 14th century historical novel.</p>
		</aside>

		<main>
			<h1>Zhang Fei Trashes the Inspector in Wrath</h1>
			<p>
				Now this Dong Zhuo, also known as Dong Zhong-ying, was from Lintao in northwest China.
			</p>
		</main>
	</body>
</html>

File /test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/toggle-display.js:

function toggleHidden(...ids) {
	ids.forEach(id => {
		const element = document.getElementById(id)
		element.style.display = element.style.display === 'none' ? '' : 'none'
	})
}

function hide(id) {
	const element = document.getElementById(id)
	element.style.display = 'none'
}

function show(id) {
	const element = document.getElementById(id)
	element.style.display = ''
}

function toggleVisibility(id) {
	const element = document.getElementById(id)
	element.className = element.className === 'off-screen' ? '' : 'off-screen'
}

function toggleAriaHidden(id) {
	const element = document.getElementById(id)
	element.setAttribute('aria-hidden', (element.getAttribute('aria-hidden') !== 'true').toString())
}

File /test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/styles.css:

.off-screen {
	position: absolute;
	top: -999px;
}

.visible-on-focus {
	position: absolute;
	top: -100px;
}
.visible-on-focus:focus-within {
	position: relative;
	top: 0px;
}

Passed

Passed Example 1

Open in a new tab

This document has a link at the start of the document to toggle the visibility and inclusion in the accessibility tree of the navigational block of repeated content.

<html>
	<head>
		<script src="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/toggle-display.js"></script>
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 1</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<a href="#" onclick="toggleHidden('chapters-navigation')">Toggle table of content</a>

		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<ol>
				<li><a>Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html">Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<div id="main">
			<p>
				Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span
				of time.
			</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Passed Example 2

Open in a new tab

This document has a button at the start of the document to toggle the visibility and inclusion in the accessibility tree of both the complementary and the navigational blocks of repeated content.

<html>
	<head>
		<script src="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/toggle-display.js"></script>
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 1</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<button onclick="toggleHidden('chapters-navigation', 'about-book')">Toggle repeated content</button>

		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<ol>
				<li><a>Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html">Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<aside id="about-book">
			<p>The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a 14th century historical novel.</p>
		</aside>

		<div id="main">
			<p>
				Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span
				of time.
			</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Passed Example 3

Open in a new tab

This document has two dedicated instruments to toggle the visibility and inclusion in the accessibility tree of the complementary and the navigational blocks of repeated content respectively.

<html>
	<head>
		<script src="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/toggle-display.js"></script>
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 1</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<a href="#" onclick="toggleHidden('chapters-navigation')">Toggle table of content</a>
		<button onclick="toggleHidden('about-book')">Toggle extra content</button>

		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<ol>
				<li><a>Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html">Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<aside id="about-book">
			<p>The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a 14th century historical novel.</p>
		</aside>

		<div id="main">
			<p>
				Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span
				of time.
			</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Passed Example 4

Open in a new tab

This document has a button at the start of the document to toggle the visibility and inclusion in the accessibility tree of the navigational block of repeated content. The button is only visible when focused.

<html>
	<head>
		<script src="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/toggle-display.js"></script>
		<link rel="stylesheet" href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/styles.css" />
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 1</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<button onclick="toggleHidden('chapters-navigation')" class="visible-on-focus">Toggle repeated content</button>

		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<ol>
				<li><a>Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html">Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<div id="main">
			<p>
				Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span
				of time.
			</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Failed

Failed Example 1

Open in a new tab

This document has no instrument to toggle the navigational block of repeated content.

<html>
	<head>
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 1</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<ol>
				<li><a>Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html">Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<div id="main">
			<p>
				Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span
				of time.
			</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Failed Example 2

Open in a new tab

This document has an instrument to toggle visibility of the navigational block of repeated content, but none to toggle its inclusion in the accessibility tree.

<html>
	<head>
		<link rel="stylesheet" href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/styles.css" />
		<script src="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/toggle-display.js"></script>
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 1</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<a href="#" onclick="toggleVisibility('chapters-navigation')">Toggle table of content</a>

		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<ol>
				<li><a>Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html">Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<div id="main">
			<p>
				Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span
				of time.
			</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Failed Example 3

Open in a new tab

This document has an instrument to toggle the inclusion on the accessibility tree of the block of repeated content, but none to toggle its visibility.

<html>
	<head>
		<script src="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/toggle-display.js"></script>
		<title>The Three Kingdoms, Chapter 1</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<a href="#" onclick="toggleAriaHidden('chapters-navigation')">Toggle table of content</a>

		<nav id="chapters-navigation">
			<ol>
				<li><a>Chapter 1</a></li>
				<li><a href="/test-assets/bypass-blocks-cf77f2/chapter2.html">Chapter 2</a></li>
			</ol>
		</nav>

		<div id="main">
			<p>
				Unity succeeds division and division follows unity. One is bound to be replaced by the other after a long span
				of time.
			</p>
		</div>
	</body>
</html>

Inapplicable

Inapplicable Example 1

Open in a new tab

This document is not an HTML web page.

<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <title>This is an SVG</title>
</svg>

Glossary

Block of content

A block of content in an HTML web page is a set of nodes from that page for which all the following are true:

content: there is at least one node which is perceivable content in the block; and
continuity: if two nodes are in the block, then any node between them (in tree order) is also in the block; and
downward closure: if a node is in the block, then all its descendants are also in the block; and
parent closure: if all children of a node are in the block, then this node is also in the block.

Block of repeated content

A block of content B, inside an HTML web page P, is a block of repeated content if both the following are true:

distance 1: there exist an instrument in P which leads the user to another HTML web page P’ whose URL has a different host, port (including default port for special URL), or path; and
repeated: there exist a block of content in P’ which is equivalent to B.

Equivalent resource

Non-identical resources can still be equivalent resources by equally complying to the expectation formed by the user when navigating to them, thus serving an equivalent purpose. This would usually involve that the advertised key content is the same.

Web pages and documents (e.g. PDFs, office formats etc.) may be equivalent resources, even if the resources:

are located on different URLs, including different domains
present different navigation options, e.g. through bread crumbs or local sub menus
contain different amounts of information and/or differently worded information
use different layouts.

If all resources cover the user’s expectations equally well, the resources are considered to be equivalent.

Note: The user’s expectations for the resource can be formed by different things, e.g. the name of the link leading to the resource, with or without the context around the link. This depends on the accessibility requirement that is tested.

Note: If the same content is presented in different formats or languages, the format or language itself is often part of the purpose of the content, e.g. an article as both HTML and PDF, an image in different sizes, or an article in two different languages. If getting the same content in different formats or languages is the purpose of having separate links, the resources are not equivalent.

Explicit Semantic Role

The explicit semantic role of an element is determined by its role attribute (if any).

The role attribute takes a list of tokens. The explicit semantic role is the first valid role in this list. The valid roles are all non-abstract roles from WAI-ARIA Specifications. If the element has no role attribute, or if it has one with no valid role, then this element has no explicit semantic role.

Other roles may be added as they become available. Not all roles will be supported in all assistive technologies. Testers are encouraged to adjust which roles are allowed according to the accessibility support base line. For the purposes of executing test cases in all rules, it should be assumed that all roles are supported by assistive technologies so that none of the roles fail due to lack of accessibility support.

Focusable

An element is focusable if one or both of the following are true:

the element is part of sequential focus navigation; or
the element has a tabindex value that is not null.

Exception: Elements that lose focus and do not regain focus during a period of up to 1 second after gaining focus, without the user interacting with the page the element is on, are not considered focusable.

Notes:

The 1 second time span is an arbitrary limit which is not included in WCAG. Given that scripts can manage the focus state of elements, testing the focusability of an element consistently would be impractical without a time limit.
The tabindex value of an element is the value of the tabindex attribute parsed using the rules for parsing integers. For the tabindex value to be different from null, it needs to be parsed without errors.

Implicit Semantic Role

The implicit semantic role of an element is a pre-defined value given by the host language which depends on the element and its ancestors.

Implicit roles for HTML and SVG, are documented in the HTML accessibility API mappings (working draft) and the SVG accessibility API mappings (working draft).

Included in the accessibility tree

Elements included in the accessibility tree of platform specific accessibility APIs are exposed to assistive technologies. This allows users of assistive technology to access the elements in a way that meets the requirements of the individual user.

The general rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree are defined in the core accessibility API mappings. For native markup languages, such as HTML and SVG, additional rules for when elements are included in the accessibility tree can be found in the HTML accessibility API mappings (working draft) and the SVG accessibility API mappings (working draft).

For more details, see examples of included in the accessibility tree.

Programmatically hidden elements are removed from the accessibility tree. However, some browsers will leave focusable elements with an aria-hidden attribute set to true in the accessibility tree. Because they are hidden, these elements are considered not included in the accessibility tree. This may cause confusion for users of assistive technologies because they may still be able to interact with these focusable elements using sequential keyboard navigation, even though the element should not be included in the accessibility tree.

Instrument to achieve an objective

An HTML element that when activated allows an end-user to achieve an objective.

Note: Any rule that uses this definition must provide an unambiguous description of the objective the instrument is used to achieve.

Marked as decorative

An element is marked as decorative if one or more of the following conditions is true:

it has an explicit role of none or presentation; or
it is an img element with an alt attribute whose value is the empty string (alt=""), and with no explicit role.

Elements are marked as decorative as a way to convey the intention of the author that they are pure decoration. It is different from the element actually being pure decoration as authors may make mistakes. It is different from the element being effectively ignored by assistive technologies as rules such as presentational roles conflict resolution may overwrite this intention.

Elements can also be ignored by assistive technologies if they are programmatically hidden. This is different from marking the element as decorative and does not convey the same intention. Notably, being programmatically hidden may change as users interact with the page (showing and hiding elements) while being marked as decorative should stay the same through all states of the page.

Non-repeated content after repeated content

A node is non-repeated content after repeated content if all the following are true:

the node is perceivable content; and
the node is not part of any block of repeated content; and
the node is after (in tree order in the flat tree) at least one block of repeated content.

Outcome

A conclusion that comes from evaluating an ACT Rule on a test subject or one of its constituent test target. An outcome can be one of the five following types:

Inapplicable: No part of the test subject matches the applicability
Passed: A test target meets all expectations
Failed: A test target does not meet all expectations
cantTell: Whether the rule is applicable, or not all expectations were met could not be fully determined by the tester.
Untested: The tester has not attempted to evaluate the test subject.

Note: A rule has one passed or failed outcome for every test target. When a tester evaluates a test target it can also be reported as cantTell if the rule cannot be tested in its entirety. For example, when applicability was automated, but the expectations have to be evaluated manually.

When there are no test targets the rule has one inapplicable outcome. If the tester is unable to determine whether there are test targets there will be one cantTell outcome. And when no evaluation has occurred the test target has one untested outcome. This means that each test subject always has one or more outcomes.

Outcomes used in ACT Rules can be expressed using the outcome property of the [EARL10-Schema][].

Perceivable content

A node is perceivable content if all the following are true:

the node is palpable content; and
the node is either visible or included in the accessibility tree; and
if the node is an element, it does not have a semantic role of none or presentation.

Perceivable content corresponds to nodes that contain information and are perceived by some categories of users.

Programmatically Hidden

An HTML element is programmatically hidden if either it has a computed CSS property visibility whose value is not visible; or at least one of the following is true for any of its inclusive ancestors in the flat tree:

has a computed CSS property display of none; or
has an aria-hidden attribute set to true

Note: Contrary to the other conditions, the visibility CSS property may be reverted by descendants.

Note: The HTML standard suggests setting the CSS display property to none for elements with the hidden attribute. While not required by HTML, all modern browsers follow this suggestion. Because of this the hidden attribute is not used in this definition. In browsers that use this suggestion, overriding the CSS display property can reveal elements with the hidden attribute.

Semantic Role

The semantic role of an element is determined by the first of these cases that applies:

Conflict If the element is marked as decorative, but the element is included in the accessibility tree; or would be included in the accessibility tree when it is not programmatically hidden, then its semantic role is its implicit role.
Explicit If the element has an explicit role, then its semantic role is its explicit role.
Implicit The semantic role of the element is its implicit role.

This definition can be used in expressions such as “semantic button” meaning any element with a semantic role of button.

Visible

Content perceivable through sight.

Content is considered visible if making it fully transparent would result in a difference in the pixels rendered for any part of the document that is currently within the viewport or can be brought into the viewport via scrolling.

Content is defined in WCAG.

For more details, see examples of visible.

WAI-ARIA specifications

The WAI ARIA Specifications group both the WAI ARIA W3C Recommendation and ARIA modules, namely:

Note: depending on the type of content being evaluated, part of the specifications might be irrelevant and should be ignored.

Web page (HTML)

An HTML web page is the set of all fully active documents which share the same top-level browsing context.

Note: Nesting of browsing context mostly happens with iframe and object. Thus a web page will most of the time be a “top-level” document and all its iframe and object (recursively).

Note: Web pages as defined by WCAG are not restricted to the HTML technology but can also include, e.g., PDF or DOCX documents.

Note: Although web pages as defined here are sets of documents (and do not contain other kind of nodes), one can abusively write that any node is “in a web page” if it is a shadow-including descendant of a document that is part of that web page.

Rule Versions

This is the first version of this ACT rule.

Implementations

This section is not part of the official rule. It is populated dynamically and not accounted for in the change history or the last modified date.

Implementation	Type	Consistency
Axe DevTools Pro 4.37.1	Semi-automated tool	Partial
Axe-core 4.8.3	Automated tool	Partial
QualWeb 3.0.0	Automated tool	Partial

Description

Applicability

Expectation

Background

Assumptions

Accessibility Support

Bibliography

Accessibility Requirements Mapping

Input Aspects

Test Cases

Passed

Passed Example 1

Passed Example 2

Passed Example 3

Passed Example 4

Failed

Failed Example 1

Failed Example 2

Failed Example 3

Inapplicable

Inapplicable Example 1

Glossary

Block of content

Block of repeated content

Equivalent resource

Explicit Semantic Role

Focusable

Implicit Semantic Role

Included in the accessibility tree

Instrument to achieve an objective

Marked as decorative

Non-repeated content after repeated content

Outcome

Perceivable content

Programmatically Hidden

Semantic Role

Visible

WAI-ARIA specifications

Web page (HTML)

Rule Versions

Implementations

Useful Links