CSS position: causes meaningless sequence Accessibility Checkpoint

Description

CSS positioning can make pages unreadable when style sheets are turned off.

Help

Low vision users often switch off style sheets to make text easier to read. Absolute positioning can result in pages that display text out-of-order when style sheets are turned off.

Applicable standards

• WCAG 2.0 F1 (Success Criteria: 1.3.2 level A)
• WCAG 2.1 F1 (Success Criteria: 1.3.2 level A)
• Section 508 (2017) F1 (Success Criteria: 1.3.2 level A)

Note: Section 508 Refresh (2017) checkpoints are equivalent to WCAG 2.0 level A and level AA checkpoints.

Change history

• 6.48 Mar 2023 Fixed false positive on hidden elements.
• 5.37 May 2020 Improved detection. Changed rule ID from AccWcag1-6.1.1 to AccCssMeaninglessSequence.
• 5.22 Jul 2016 Fixed false positive on print media.
• 5.21 Mar 2016 Fixed false positive on SharePoint sites.
• 5.3 Sep 2013 Fixed false positive.
• 4.2 Dec 2010 Don’t fire for position:absolute when used without co-ordinates (i.e. as holder for other relative items).
• 3.5 Dec 2009 Don’t fire when used to hide accessible text offscreen.
• 3.0 Dec 2008 Now triggers WCAG2 issue.
• 2.0 Dec 2007 Now triggers Section 508 issue.
• 1.0 Feb 2007 Added.

This page describes a web site issue detected in HTML documents by SortSite Desktop and OnDemand Suite.

Rule ID: AccCssMeaninglessSequence