- Success Criterion 1.3.1
- Conformance level A
Star Rating or Progress Step Shown Only as a Visual Cue
1.3.1 — Info and Relationships
Scenario
Setting
A pharmacy app's prescription-refill form
What’s wrong
Star ratings, progress steps, and status badges whose meaning exists only in visual position/color.
Example
<div class="heading">Shipping Address</div>Why it matters
Screen-reader, braille, and reading-tool users who depend on coded structure rather than visual layout.
How to test
Focus a star rating, step indicator, or status badge with a screen reader: it should announce a text equivalent ('3 of 5 stars', 'Step 2 of 4') — visual-only fails.
How to fix
Provide the rating/step/status as text (e.g., '3 of 5 stars', 'Step 2 of 4') alongside the visual.
<h2>Shipping Address</h2>A real heading element exposes the section structure to assistive tech; a styled div doesn't.
Outcome
On a pharmacy app's prescription-refill form, this barrier is gone for screen-reader, braille — they reach the same outcome without extra effort.
Who is affected
Screen-reader, braille, and reading-tool users who depend on coded structure rather than visual layout.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- Text Styled to Look Like a Heading Instead of Coded as One
- Text Columns Faked With Spaces Instead of Real Table Markup
- Table Layout Faked With Spaces Instead of Real Table Code
- Clickable Div Acting as a Link Button With No Real Role
- Structural HTML Tags Used Purely for Visual Styling
- Layout-Only Table Wrongly Coded With Real Header Cells