- Success Criterion 1.3.1
- Conformance level A
- W3C reference F33
Text Columns Faked With Spaces Instead of Real Table Markup
1.3.1 — Info and Relationships
Scenario
Setting
A childcare-booking service's scheduling page
What’s wrong
Spaces/tabs are used to fake side-by-side columns in plain text — read aloud, the lines interleave into nonsense.
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
Select the 'columns' with your cursor and copy-paste into a plain text editor: if spaces/tabs were used instead of real CSS columns, the text runs together out of order.
How to fix
Use real layout (CSS columns/flex) instead of whitespace so the reading order stays linear and sensible.
<h2>Shipping Address</h2>A real heading element exposes the section structure to assistive tech; a styled div doesn't.
Outcome
On a childcare-booking service's scheduling page, this barrier is gone for screen-reader, braille — they can complete the task without hitting this wall.
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)
- Technique Related technique (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- Text Styled to Look Like a Heading Instead of Coded as One
- 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
- Tabular Data Placed Inside a Preformatted Text Block