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Fairfield County, Ohio

Screen reader users will see links on a page listed without context, 
so you should ensure the same link text is not used to point to different web
addresses.

For example:

```html
<p>
    Learn the latest about our products: 
    <a href="/products/news">News</a>
</p>

<p>
    Learn the latest about our services: 
    <a href="/company/news">News</a>
</p>
``` 

To a screen reader who is listing links, they will only hear:

* News
* News

These links appear to be the same, but they both behave differently. 
One solution, which doesn't require the page design to change, is to add an 
`aria-label` for each link:

```html
<p>
    Learn the latest about our products: 
    <a href="/products/news" aria-label="Product news">News</a>
</p>

<p>
    Learn the latest about our services: 
    <a href="/company/news" aria-label="Company news">News</a>
</p>
``` 

Which will be heard as:

* Product news
* Company news

To pass this checkpoint, make sure that links which point to different pages 
have distinct text inside them, or that they specify ARIA labels (`aria-labelledby` or
`aria-label`), or they use hidden text only visible to screen readers
(e.g. `<span class="sr-only">...</span>`) to distinguish them from each 
other.

If links point to the same page (e.g., they redirect or use tracking
parameters, but are functionally equivalent to the user) you can ignore
this issue.

a-duplicate-link-text-for-different-destinations

To comply with the strictest accessibility standard (WCAG AAA), the colour of text must 
strongly contrast with its background color, so that people with significant visual impairments 
can read it.

The [contrast ratio](https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-contrast.html#contrast-ratiodef)
must be at least 7:1 for body text, and 4.5:1 for large text.

A far less demanding version of this check (1.4.3) exists for WCAG AA. All websites should aim to 
meet the easier AA standard at a minimum. The AAA standard is desirable but far more challenging,
and may not be practical for your website.

aaa-text-contrast

Links must be appear visually distinct from regular text. A common mistake is to make links
only differ subtly in color. Users with visual impairments cannot see these links.   

There are two ways to comply with this requirement:

1. You can make links appear differently from regular text without relying on color alone.
   For example, you can add an underline to your links. This makes links easy to identify, even
   to people who cannot see color at all.
2. You can make links a color which is very different from the surrounding text (a 3:1 ratio), 
   AND ensure that when the link is selected with the keyboard or mouse that it appears   
   differently from regular text without relying on color alone.

Unless you have disabled the `outline` CSS style, links will automatically appear visually distinct
when selected with the keyboard.

link-contrast

Avoid opening links in a new tab or window. Where you must do this, include an explanation
in the text of the link.

## Why this matters

Opening links in a new tab or window breaks the back button and can be disorientating for 
novice web users, and the visually impaired. Generally you should avoid opening links in a
new tab or window, but if you have to, you should include text explaining that this will happen.

## How to fix

An explanation must be clear in the accessible text for the link. For example:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank">
    Products (opens in new window)
</a>
```

Or, for an image inside a link:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank">
    <img src="products.jpg" alt="Products (opens in new window)">
</a>
```

Rather than updating all of your links manually to do this, you can add a simple CSS
selector, such as:

```css
a[target="_blank"]:after {
    content: " (opens in new window)";
}
```

Note that doing this with an icon, is not sufficient to pass this check. The text must be
readable by screen readers.

Alternatively you can override the link text for accessible technologies (like screenreaders),
so that the appearance of the link does not change. For example:

```html
<a href="products.html" target="_blank" aria-label="Products (opens in new window)">
    Products
</a>
```

Note that if you do this, the `aria-label` will replace the text content of the link completely,
so it must still make sense in isolation.

## Terminology

Although it is common to say "opens in new window", almost all browsers now use tabs, and
so this terminology is potentially confusing. You may prefer: "opens in new tab".

## Methodology

1. Silktide considers all links on a page with a `target` attribute of `_blank`.
2. For each link, Silktide considers the screen-readable text of the link, which includes:
   * The text content of the link
   * Any `alt` text inside any images inside the link
   * Any `aria-label` or `aria-labelled-by` text
   * The `content` of the pseudo-elements `:before` and `:after`
3. This text is analysed for the presence of common text, including "opens new tab"
    and "opens new window". If the text is not found, the link fails the test.

## Further reading

Generally best practice is to avoid opening links in a new tab or window.  

The W3C provides detailed guidance on 
[when opening a link in a new window may be appropriate](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G200.html).

link-text-explains-open-in-new-window

Lists of related items should be written [semantically](https://html.com/semantic-markup/) as a 
list.

Usually this means rewriting these to use the `<ul>` or `<ol>` tags.

This allows assistive technologies to more easily navigate from item to
item, or past entire groups of links if the user wants to. 

## Examples 

### Navigation

This navigation:

```html
<a href="/about">About us</a>
<a href="/products">Products</a>
<a href="/contact">Contact us</a>
```

Should be rewritten as a list:

```html
<ul>
  <li><a href="/about">About us</a></li>
  <li><a href="/products">Products</a></li>
  <li><a href="/contact">Contact us</a></li>
</ul>
```

### Tables for content

This single-column table is redundant. There is no
value in placing the content in a table, which makes
it harder for screen reader users to interpret and interact
with.

```html
<table>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Banana
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Apple
    </td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>
      Pear
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>
```

Should be rewritten as a list:

```html
<ul>
  <li>Banana</li>
  <li>Apple</li>
  <li>Pear</li>
</ul>
```

## Justification

Users of assistive technologies, like screen readers, can skip an entire
list in one step. In some cases, they can even search inside a list. 

These aids are not available where links are written outside a list. 
Failing to use lists correctly can force users to have to step through
hundreds of items one at a time.

## Methodology

1. Any single-column tables are automatically considered 
   redundant lists. 
2. For non-table elements, recursively work down the page looking inside
   each element for links separated by minimal amounts of non-link text. 
   If the non-link text is below 30 characters 
   in length, we assume we're inside content that should be a list.
   Some exceptions are made, e.g. the presence of an `<hr>` would break
   out of the list.

## More information

See [Technique
H48](https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20161007/H48) for
details.

mark-navigation-section-as-list

Every page should have a clearly defined heading, known as a "H1" (Heading 1).

A `H1` is the main heading of the page. It helps accessibility by allowing uses to
skip to the main content of the page. It helps all users identify what the page is about. 
It helps SEO by giving special emphasis to the topic of the page.

It is not enough to simply include large text. Headings must be coded 
[semantically](https://html.com/semantic-markup/) as `<h1>` tags, like so:

```html
<h1>This is a heading</h1>
```

Note that headings must contain some machine readable text to be considered valid. 
For example, this heading is not valid:

```html
<h1>
    <img src="company-logo.png">
</h1>
``` 

But with the addition of `alt` text, this heading is valid:

```html
<h1>
    <img src="company-logo.png" alt="About Company Inc.">
</h1>
``` 

Generally we recommend you just use plain text for your headings.
See [Technique H42](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H42) for more details.

missing-h1

Headings in a PDF should follow the sequence Heading 1 > Heading 2 > Heading 3 without skipping intermediate headings.

It is acceptable to 'go back' to previous styles/headings but the sequence should then continue without missing headings.

See [WCAG](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html#PDF9)

pdf-headings-order

Bookmarks (also known as outline entries) should be applied to long PDFs to 
provide a hierarchical overview of the document to help aid navigation. 

WCAG guidelines do not specify how many pages are required to be classified as a 
long PDF. Because of this Silktide treats PDFs of 21 or more pages as long. 
This matches [Adobe Acrobat](https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/create-verify-pdf-accessibility.html?trackingid=KACNN#Bookmarks) 
interpretation.  

See [WCAG](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html#PDF2) for advice.

pdf-long-document-requires-bookmarks

PDFs should have a default document language set to help render text accurately and help screen readers pronounce words correctly. 
See [WCAG](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html#PDF16) for reference.

pdf-missing-default-language

PDF files should have headings.
 See [WCAG](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html#PDF9)

pdf-missing-headings

PDFs need to be tagged in a valid reading order for accessibility. See [Adobe's guide](https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/using/creating-accessible-pdfs.html#tag_the_pdf) and [WCAG](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/pdf.html#PDF3) for advice.

pdf-must-be-tagged

All PDFs must define a valid title. This must not be confused with the file name. 
See [PDF 18](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/PDF18.html) for details.

pdf-no-title

PDFs need to be machine readable for accessibility software to be able to access them. 
Scanned documents or password protected ones are usually not machine readable.

pdf-not-machine-readable

wcag-22.score

wcag-22-a.score

wcag-22-aa.score

wcag-22-aaa.score

website.pages

website.documents

Webpages should provide a way to skip to the main content of the page. There are 
several ways to accomplish this.

The most common solution is a "Skip to content" link:

```html
<a href="#main">Skip to main content</a>
...
<div id="main">
<h1>Welcome to this page</h1>
```

This link is usually hidden from users unless selected, so it doesn't need to compromise the look of 
your page.

Alternatively, you can use the `<main>` HTML landmark:

```html
<main>
<h1>Welcome to this page</h1>
``` 

or an ARIA role of `main`:

```html
<div role="main">
<h1>Welcome to this page</h1>
``` 

Generally best practice is to combine these approaches, using `<main>` landmark with a link pointing to it:

```html
<a href="#main">Skip to main content</a>
...
<main id="main">
<h1>Welcome to this page</h1>
```

This approach will be most widely supported by screen readers and understood by the highest number of users.

# Justification

Many users of assistive technology are only able to experience content sequentially - that is, they must
step through each part of the page, one part at a time. Often this is a slow process, potentially 
hampered by a physical impediment.

Most web pages have a header containing branding and navigation on every page. Stepping through 
this repetitive part of the page can be hugely frustrating for users of assistive technology. For example, 
a blind user may have to listen to hundreds of navigation links before they can reach the content on a page.

Adding a means to skip directly to the page content massively enhances the experience for these users.

Skip to content links do not need to be visible to everyone. A common implementation means they are only 
experienced by users via the tab key or other assistive technology 
(see [skipping to navigation links](https://webaim.org/techniques/skipnav/) from WebAIM). 

# Methodology

It is not sufficient to include a "skip to content" link. The link must work, and it must appear early
enough in the page to be useful.

* If the page has less than 500 visible characters, it does not require a "skip to content" link.
* If the page has a main landmark (e.g. `<main>` or `role="main"`) it does not require a "skip to content" link.
* Silktide looks for a link with a fragment (e.g. `#main`) pointing to a lower part of the page. The link 
  must not be adjacent to other text nodes. 
* The fragment must point to an ID that exists, or this check will raise an error.
* The link must appear before 500 visible characters of text in the page, or this check will raise an error.

The text inside the link is not considered, as this test must support a wide range of languages.

# Learn more

More about [skipping to navigation links](https://webaim.org/techniques/skipnav/) from WebAIM and 
see [W3C's recommended technique](https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20161007/G1).

skip-to-content

When viewed on small screens (like mobile phones) content must fit without 
requiring scrolling in two dimensions.

WCAG 2.1 specifically requires this for:

+ Vertical scrolling content at a width equivalent to 320 CSS pixels
+ Horizontal scrolling content at a height equivalent to 256 CSS pixels

Except for parts of the content which require two-dimensional layout for usage or meaning,
such as a maps application.

two-dimensional-scrolling

Two adjacent links should not point to the same destination. You almost always want to combine the 
two links.

For example, it is quite common to link an image and text together like this:

```html
<a href="news.html">
    <img src="photo.jpg" alt="" />
</a>
<a href="news.html">
    News
</a>
``` 

These adjacent links should be combined like so:

```html
<a href="news.html">
    <img src="photo.jpg" alt="" />
    News
</a>
``` 

Links to `#` are ignored, as these are nearly always placeholders for JavaScript, e.g.:

```html
<a href="#" onclick="approve()">
    OK
</a>
<a href="#" onclick="reject()">
    Cancel
</a>
```

# Justification

Many users of assistive technology are only able to experience content sequentially - that is, they must
step through each part of the page, one part at a time. Often this is a slow process, potentially 
hampered by a physical impediment.

Stepping through redundant links is time consuming; for example users of a screen reader must 
hear each link read aloud in turn. 

This also simplifies your code. 

# Methodology

1. Find all links (`<a>` tags) on the page.
2. Ignore links pointing to `#`, as these are usually placeholders for JavaScript.
3. Flag links which are (a) separated only by whitespace and (b) which point to the 
   same absolute URL.  

# Learn more

Read about [Technique H2](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H2) on how to combine
an adjacent image and texts links.

duplicate-adjacent-link

Do not link to an anchor on the page that does not exist. For example:
linking to `#content` without a valid destination such as `<body id="content"></body>`.

A common web design pattern is to use a named anchor to show an element via JavaScript, e.g.

```html
<a href="#foo" onclick="$('.bar').toggle();">Click me</a>
<div class="bar">
    This is some content.
</div>
``` 

In these cases, the anchor (`#foo`) should point to the `id` of the hidden element:

```html
<a href="#foo" onclick="$('#foo').toggle();">Click me</a>
<div id="foo">
    This is some content.
</div>
```

This way the semantic intent of the link is preserved, even without JavaScript. 
Note that doing so may require modification to your script, to prevent automatic 
scrolling to the named anchor.

linking-to-anchor-on-page-that-does-not-exist

When viewed on small screens (like mobile phones) content should be large enough to 
read without being zoomed-into and scrolled in two dimensions.

WCAG 2.1 specifically requires this for:

+ Vertical scrolling content at a width equivalent to 320 CSS pixels
+ Horizontal scrolling content at a height equivalent to 256 CSS pixels

This issue almost always indicates that the webpage has not been designed
to work on mobile devices at all.

extreme-zoom-scrolling

To comply with WCAG AA, the colour of text must sufficiently contrast with
its background color, so that people with moderate visual impairments can read it.

The [contrast ratio](https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-contrast.html#contrast-ratiodef) 
must be at least 4.5:1 for body text, and 3:1 for large text.

A much more demanding version of this check (1.4.6) exists for WCAG AAA. Ignoring an issue in this check 
will also ignore it in that check, and vice versa.

aa-text-contrast

Tables which contain information should have clear headers defined.  

In this example, the top row of the table is a header:

| Surname        | City          |
| -------------- | ------------- |
| Washington     | London        |
| Phoenix        | Arizona       |
| Austin         | Travis        |

Notice how without the header here, it would be almost impossible to understand 
what the individual values mean ("Washington" could be a city or a surname). 

It is not enough to just make the headers look differently, as accessible technologies will not 
recognize this (for example, a screen reader cannot 'see' different colors or fonts). 
Table headings must be defined using the `<th>` tag. 

This example shows how a table should use a `<th>` to mark cells as headings. Note the 
use of the `col` attribute, to specify these headings are for the _column_:

```html
<table>
  <tr>
    <th scope="col">First name</th>
    <th scope="col">City</th>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Washington</td>
    <td>London</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Phoenix</td>
    <td>Arizona</td>
  </tr>
  <tr>
    <td>Austin</td>
    <td>Travis</td>
  </tr>
</table>
```

Tables which are used purely for layout do not need to do this. However, 
[the use of tables for layout is strongly discouraged](https://www.lifewire.com/dont-use-tables-for-layout-3468941).
This check will ignore tables that it believes are purposely used for layout.

Learn more about [accessible table design (W3C)](https://www.w3.org/WAI/tutorials/tables/one-header/).

add-header-to-tables

Heading elements (`<h1>`, `<h2>`, ...) must contain some machine-readable
text content. 

Heading should never be empty, or just contain whitespace:

```html
<h1>   </h1>
```

Headings which contain images or other media must specify alternative text:

```html
<h1>
    <img src="heading.png" alt="Press releases"> 
</h1>
```

See [Technique H42](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H42) for more details.

empty-heading-content

Most content should be written so people with a lower secondary level of education can understand it.
Where this is not possible, supplemental content or an alternative version should be provided.

This check highlights pages with a reading age of 16 years or higher. Only pages with at least 100 words
of content (excluding navigation, footers, etc) are considered.  

For more information, see [WCAG SC 3.1.5](https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/meaning-supplements.html).

ensure-reading-ability-is-not-advanced

All frames must define a readable title, which briefly described the contents of that frame.

Note that this is not the same as a `<title>` tag inside the iframe, which is insufficient.
You must provide a meaningful description for the frame using the `title` attribute.

Examples:

```html
<iframe title="Advertisement" src="ad.html">
```

```html
<frame title="Advertisement" src="ad.html">
```

# Why this matters

Accessible technologies such as screen readers rely on the `title` attribute to list
the frames on a given page. 

Without a title, it is impossible to know what the frame contains, and the user must
navigate inside it, and explore the contents of the frame to figure this out.

Often iframes are used for technologies like banner adverts, videos, or chat widgets. The 
absence of a `title` makes these areas of the page much harder to identify, understand, 
or use.

# How titles are tested

Frames which are not presented to screen readers are ignored. This includes invisible
frames, and frames marked with `aria-hidden`.

A `title` attribute must contain meaningful text, e.g. numbers / letters, to be considered
valid. A title containing just spaces, or non-readable text (e.g. an emoji) will
be flagged as invalid.

# More information

Learn about [Technique H64](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/html/H64)
as part of [SC 2.4.1 - Bypass Blocks](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/bypass-blocks).

has-frame-title

When an image is the only content of a link, it should specify alternative text, 
via an `alt` attribute. The alternative text should describe the purpose of the link.

Without this, some users will be unable to determine what a link does, for example anyone 
using a screen reader.

To fix this, simply add an `alt` attribute to the image inside the link, e.g.:

```html
<a href="/apple">
    <img src="apple.png" alt="Apple">
</a>
```

img-in-link-missing-alt

The purpose of a link should be clear from the text inside the link. Links like "learn more" are
not helpful to users with accessible technology.

Links should also avoid redundantly saying that they are links, e.g. "link to page" as screen
readers will read these out with the word "link" added, e.g. "link link to page".

Exceptions to these rules are allowed where the purpose of a link would be ambiguous to users 
in general.

link-purpose-a

All PDFs must define a descriptive title. 
See [PDF 18](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/PDF18.html) for details.

pdf-weak-title

All pre-recorded audio and video should provide appropriate captions. This allows people who are deaf 
or hard of hearing to use the media. 

Captions should provide the part of the content available via the audio track. Captions not only include 
dialogue, but identify who is speaking and include non-speech information conveyed through sound, 
including meaningful sound effects.

See [Understanding WCAG Success Criterion 1.2.2](https://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/media-equiv-captions.html).

Priority	Recommendation	Progress
	Ensure links are distinguished by more than just color WCAG 2.0 A 1.4.1	41.3%
	Ensure PDFs have a title WCAG 2.0 A 2.4.2	36%
	Tag all PDFs WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1	56%
	Write lists or groups of links semantically WCAG 2.0 A 1.3.1	0%
	Allow users to quickly skip to content WCAG 2.0 A 2.4.1	96%

Fairfield County, Ohio

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