- Success Criterion 1.3.2
- Conformance level A
Heading or Sentence Split Into Disconnected Announced Fragments
1.3.2 — Meaningful Sequence
Scenario
Setting
An insurance company's claims form
What’s wrong
A single logical text unit (heading, sentence) split across sibling elements/spans so screen readers announce it in fragments.
Example
.step-2 { order: 1; } .step-1 { order: 2; } /* visual order ≠ DOM order */Why it matters
Screen-reader and keyboard users who encounter content in DOM order.
How to test
Read a heading or sentence with a screen reader: if it's split across multiple sibling elements/spans, it may be announced in disconnected fragments instead of one unit.
How to fix
The screen reader must read content in an order matching the visual/logical order, item by item — nothing skipped, merged, fragmented, or added.
<!-- DOM order matches the order the CSS makes visible: step-1, then step-2 -->When CSS reorders content visually, the underlying DOM order must still match, or the reading order breaks.
Outcome
On an insurance company's claims form, this barrier is gone for screen-reader and keyboard users who encounter content in DOM order — they no longer have to work around this.
Who is affected
Screen-reader and keyboard users who encounter content in DOM order.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- CSS Layout Changes That Scramble the Screen Reader’s Reading Order
- Word Spelled Out Letter by Letter Instead of Read as a Word
- Text Columns Faked With Spaces Read Aloud Out of Order
- Layout Table That Reads in a Nonsensical Order When Linearized
- CSS Reordering That Makes Code Order Differ From Visual Order
- Multi-Column Article Whose Code Order Interleaves the Columns