- 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
<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 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.
<h2>Shipping Address</h2>A real heading element exposes the section structure to assistive tech; a styled div doesn't.
Outcome
On a hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler, this barrier is gone for screen-reader, braille — they get the same result as anyone else here.
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