Accessibility check updates (June 2018)

We periodically update accessibility checks to account for changes in regulations and align as closely as possible with W3C standards. The following checks within our existing guidelines were updated on June 14, 2018.

These checks should not be confused with new guidelines for WCAG 2.1.
If you want to read more about Siteimprove’s collaboration with W3C and partners including work on WCAG 2.1 please see “FAQ on WCAG 2.1 - The new standard for Accessibility”.

You may notice a deviation in the number of issues and/or occurrences of issues associated with the checks below.

List of Accessibility checks updated

Color contrast is insufficient

Improvements to font-sizes calculation for more accurate results. 

Link identified only by color

Updated to respect CSS box-shadow.

Image with no alt attribute

Updated to respect role="presentation".
Images that use role="presentation" will no longer be flagged. 

No option to skip repeated content

Updated to only accept <a> (anchor) elements as the first focusable element on the page. Elements using role="link" will now also be flagged.

Generic landmarks are not named

Updated to no longer flag <section>.

Select box has no submit button

Updated to accept all button types instead of just <button type="submit">.

Input field has no description, Text area has no description, Select box has no description

Improvements made to how we identify labels.

"Bold" tag used to format text

Updated to no longer flag empty <b> elements, or <b> elements that use role="presentation".

Input field has no description

Updated to no longer flag button elements as missing labels if the button element has text.

HTML is used to format content

Updated to no longer flag list elements with the type attribute.

Element not highlighted on focus

Updated no longer flag visually hidden links that are exposed to screen readers that do not have focus indicators. In other words, If a link is only visible to assistive technologies we do not require that link to have a visible focus indicator like CSS outline.

Invalid WAI-ARIA role, state or property

Updated to accept aria-current as a valid ARIA attribute.

Note: Accessibility progress graphs are annotated to indicate when these changes occurred so users are aware of the reason for any deviation noticed. If you have any questions regarding the changes listed above, feel free to contact Siteimprove Technical Support with your request.