• Success Criterion 1.3.1
  • Conformance level A

Tooltip Help Text Never Linked to Its Trigger Control

1.3.1 — Info and Relationships

Scenario

Setting

A hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler

What’s wrong

Tooltip or help text tied to a control (an info icon's explanation) is visible on screen but never announced — it isn't programmatically linked to the control, so screen reader users focus the control and get none of the guidance sighted users see.

Example

A hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler runs into this exact issue: tooltip or help text tied to a control (an info icon's explanation) is visible on screen but never announced — it isn't programmatically linked to the control, so screen reader users focus the control and get none of the guidance sighted users see.

Why it matters

Screen-reader, braille, and reading-tool users who depend on coded structure rather than visual layout. On a hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler, this barrier means they can't tell what's going on without extra effort.

How to test

Focus the control that has an info-icon tooltip next to it: a screen reader should announce the tooltip text — if aria-describedby isn't linking them, it won't be read.

How to fix

Wire the tooltip text to the control with aria-describedby (code that ties help or error text to a field) so it's announced on focus.

Outcome

Corrected, a hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler now lets a visitor move through the content with confidence.

Who is affected

Screen-reader, braille, and reading-tool users who depend on coded structure rather than visual layout.

Learn more

Related scenarios