- Success Criterion 1.3.1
- Conformance level A
Quotation Shown Only Through Styling, Not Real Markup
1.3.1 — Info and Relationships
Scenario
Setting
A recipe site's ingredient list
What’s wrong
Quotations/citations conveyed only by styling where meaning depends on it.
Example
<p><em>Use fresh basil if you can. It makes all the difference, says our test kitchen.</em></p> Why it matters
A screen reader user hears the test kitchen's tip read exactly like every item in the ingredient list, missing that it's a quoted aside and not another ingredient.
How to test
Inspect a styled quotation (indented, italicized) in DevTools: check for blockquote/q/cite or an explicit textual attribution — style alone without markup fails.
How to fix
When meaning depends on something being a quotation, mark it as one; italics alone convey nothing to a screen reader.
<blockquote cite="https://example.com/test-kitchen">
<p>Use fresh basil if you can. It makes all the difference.</p>
<footer>Test kitchen</footer>
</blockquote> Outcome
A cook hears the test kitchen's tip announced as a quote right after the ingredient list, clearly separate from the ingredients themselves.
Who is affected
Screen reader users scanning the ingredient list can't distinguish the test kitchen's quoted commentary from the actual ingredients.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
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