Expected Result: works in a screen reader

Actual Result: causes problems in 5 screen reader / browser combinations

Tests if the user hears extra text describing the "Click Here" link when tabbing between links. Without extra text the user hears a sequence like "Click Here. Click Here. Click Here" when tabbing. In reading mode the text surrounding the link helps explain what the link does.

WCAG Technique: ARIA7

Code used for this test:

<a href='4567.html' aria-labelledby='a-aria-labelledby-clickhere'>Click Here</a>
        <span id='a-aria-labelledby-clickhere'>this is an aria labelled by</span>
    

Change History

• NVDA with IE Worse - was OK in NVDA 2014.1, but now causes problems in NVDA 2015.2
• NVDA with FF Better - caused problems in NVDA 2014.1, but now OK in NVDA 2015.2
• JAWS with IE Better - caused problems in JAWS 15.0.9023, but now OK in JAWS 16.0.4350
• JAWS with FF Stable - OK from JAWS 13.0.852 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• VoiceOver OS X Stable - OK from VoiceOver OSX 10.9 to VoiceOver OSX 10.10
• VoiceOver iOS Stable - OK from VoiceOver iOS 7.1 to VoiceOver iOS 9.1
• WindowEyes with IE Stable - OK from WindowEyes 8.4 to WindowEyes 9.2
• SaToGo with IE Causes problems in SaToGo 3.4.96.0

Screen reader	Browser	Mode	Notes	What the user hears
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Reading		Link, this is an aria labelled by, this is an aria labelled by
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by, link
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Reading		Link click here, this is an aria labelled by
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Tabbing	aria labelled ignored	Click here, link
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Reading		link click here, this is an aria labelled by
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Tabbing	aria label ignored	Click here, link
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Reading		link click here, this is an aria labelled by
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Tabbing		Click here, this is an aria labelled by, link
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Reading		link click here
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Tabbing	aria label ignored	click here link
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Reading		link click here, this is an aria labelled by
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Tabbing		click here, this is an aria labelled by link
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Reading		Link, this is an aria labelled by. This is an aria labelled by.
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by, link
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Reading		Link, click here. This is an aria labelled by.
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by, link.
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Reading		Link, this is an aria labelled by. This is an aria labelled by.
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Reading		Link, click here. This is an aria labelled by.
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by, link.
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Reading		link, this is an aria labelled by, this is an aria labelled by
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by link
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Reading		link click here, this is an aria labelled by
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by link
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Reading		link click here
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Tabbing		This is an aria labelled by link
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Reading		link click here
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Tabbing	aria label ignored	click here link
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Reading		Link, this is an aria labelled by
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Tabbing		Link, this is an aria labelled by
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Reading	reads out what's on screen - reasonable behavior	Link click here
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Tabbing		Link, this is an aria labelled by
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Reading		Link, this is an aria labelled by
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Tabbing		Link, this is an aria labelled
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Reading		Link, click here, this is an aria labelled by
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Tabbing		Link, click here, this is an aria labelled by
VoiceOver iOS 9.1	Safari iOS 9.1	Touch		This is an aria labelled by link
VoiceOver iOS 8.4	Safari iOS 8.4	Touch		This is an aria labelled by link
VoiceOver iOS 7.1	Safari iOS 7.1	Touch		This is an aria labelled by link
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Reading		link click here
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Tabbing	aria label ignored	click here link

SortSite rules: AccWcag1-13.1.2

Test notes

The threshold for inclusion in these results is 5% usage in the most recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Chrome and Android still fall below the 5% threshold.

All tests were carried out with screen reader factory settings. JAWS in particular has a wide variety of settings controlling exactly what gets spoken.

Screen readers allow users to interact in different modes, and can produce very different results in each mode. The modes used in these tests are:

• Reading Content read using the «read next» command in a screen reader
• Tabbing Content read using the «tab» key in a screen reader
• Heading Content read using the «next heading» key in a screen reader
• Touch Content read when touching an area of screen on a mobile device

In the «What the user hears» column:

• Commas represent short pauses in screen reader voicing
• Full Stops represent places where voicing stops, and the «read next» or «tab» or «next heading» command is pressed again
• Ellipsis … represent a long pause in voicing
• (Brackets) represent voicing that requires a keystroke to hear

Expected Result: works in a screen reader

Actual Result: causes problems in 7 screen reader / browser combinations

Tests if the user hears extra text describing the "Click Here" link when tabbing between links. Without extra text the user hears a sequence like "Click Here. Click Here. Click Here" when tabbing. In reading mode the text surrounding the link helps explain what the link does.

WCAG Technique: ARIA8

Code used for this test:

<a href='4567.html' aria-label='this is an aria label'>Click Here</a>
    

Change History

• NVDA with IE Better - caused problems in NVDA 2014.1, but now OK in NVDA 2015.2
• NVDA with FF Better - caused problems in NVDA 2014.1, but now OK in NVDA 2015.2
• JAWS with IE Stable - OK from JAWS 13.0.852 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• JAWS with FF Better - caused problems in JAWS 15.0.9023, but now OK in JAWS 16.0.4350
• VoiceOver OS X Stable - OK from VoiceOver OSX 10.9 to VoiceOver OSX 10.10
• VoiceOver iOS Stable - OK from VoiceOver iOS 7.1 to VoiceOver iOS 9.1
• WindowEyes with IE Stable - OK from WindowEyes 8.4 to WindowEyes 9.2
• SaToGo with IE Causes problems in SaToGo 3.4.96.0

Screen reader	Browser	Mode	Notes	What the user hears
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Reading		Link, this is an aria label
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Reading		Link, this is an aria label
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Reading		link click here
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Tabbing	aria label ignored	Click here, link
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Reading		link click here
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Tabbing	aria label ignored	Click here, link
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Reading		link click here
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Tabbing	aria label ignored	click here link
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Reading		link click here
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Tabbing	aria label ignored	click here link
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Reading		Link, this is an aria label
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Reading		Link, this is an aria label
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Reading		Link, this is an aria label
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Reading		Link, this is an aria label, click here.
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Reading		link, this is an aria label
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Reading		link, this is an aria label, click here
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria label, link
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Reading	aria-label repeated 5 times	link, this is an aria label, this is an aria label, this is an aria label, this is an aria label, click here
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Tabbing	aria-label repeated 5 times	This is an aria label, this is an aria label, this is an aria label, this is an aria label, click here link
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Reading		link, this is an aria label, click here
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Tabbing		This is an aria label, click here link
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Reading		Link, this is an aria label
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Tabbing		Link, this is an aria label
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Reading	reads out what's on screen - reasonable behavior	Link click here
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Tabbing		Link, this is an aria label
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Reading		Link, this is an aria label
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Tabbing		Link, this is an aria label
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Reading		link, click here, this is an aria label
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Tabbing		link, click here, this is an aria label
VoiceOver iOS 9.1	Safari iOS 9.1	Touch		This is an aria label, link
VoiceOver iOS 8.4	Safari iOS 8.4	Touch		This is an aria label, link
VoiceOver iOS 7.1	Safari iOS 7.1	Touch		This is an aria label, link
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Reading		link click here
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Tabbing	aria label ignored	click here link

SortSite rules: AccWcag1-13.1.2

Test notes

The threshold for inclusion in these results is 5% usage in the most recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Chrome and Android still fall below the 5% threshold.

All tests were carried out with screen reader factory settings. JAWS in particular has a wide variety of settings controlling exactly what gets spoken.

Screen readers allow users to interact in different modes, and can produce very different results in each mode. The modes used in these tests are:

• Reading Content read using the «read next» command in a screen reader
• Tabbing Content read using the «tab» key in a screen reader
• Heading Content read using the «next heading» key in a screen reader
• Touch Content read when touching an area of screen on a mobile device

In the «What the user hears» column:

• Commas represent short pauses in screen reader voicing
• Full Stops represent places where voicing stops, and the «read next» or «tab» or «next heading» command is pressed again
• Ellipsis … represent a long pause in voicing
• (Brackets) represent voicing that requires a keystroke to hear

Expected Result: works in a screen reader

Actual Result: causes problems in 9 screen reader / browser combinations

Tests if the user hears extra text describing the "Click Here" link when tabbing between links. Without extra text the user hears a sequence like "Click Here. Click Here. Click Here" when tabbing. In reading mode the text surrounding the link helps explain what the link does.

WCAG Technique: ARIA1

Code used for this test:

<a href='4567.html' aria-describedby='a-aria-describedby-clickhere'>Click Here</a>
        <span id='a-aria-describedby-clickhere'>this is an aria described by</span>
    

Change History

• NVDA with IE Stable - OK from NVDA 2012.3 to NVDA 2015.2
• NVDA with FF Stable - OK from NVDA 2012.1 to NVDA 2015.2
• JAWS with IE Better - caused problems in JAWS 15.0.9023, but now OK in JAWS 16.0.4350
• JAWS with FF Better - caused problems in JAWS 15.0.9023, but now OK in JAWS 16.0.4350
• VoiceOver OS X Causes problems from VoiceOver OSX 10.9 to VoiceOver OSX 10.10
• VoiceOver iOS Stable - OK from VoiceOver iOS 7.1 to VoiceOver iOS 9.1
• WindowEyes with IE Better - caused problems in WindowEyes 8.4, but now OK in WindowEyes 9.2
• SaToGo with IE OK in SaToGo 3.4.96.0

Screen reader	Browser	Mode	Notes	What the user hears
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Reading		Link click here, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Tabbing		Click here link, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Reading		Link click here, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Tabbing		Click here link, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Reading		link click here, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Tabbing		click here link, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Reading		link click here, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Tabbing		click here link, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Reading		link click here, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Tabbing		click here link, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Reading		link click here, this is an aria described by
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Tabbing		click here link, this is an aria described by
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Reading		Link, click here. This is an aria described by.
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Tabbing		Click here, link, this is an aria described by.
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Reading		Link, click here. This is an aria described by.
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Tabbing		Click here, link, this is an aria described by.
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Reading		Link, click here. This is an aria described by.
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Tabbing		Click here, link, this is an aria described by.
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Reading		Link, click here. This is an aria described by.
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Tabbing		Click here, link, this is an aria described by.
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Reading		link click here, this is an aria described by
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Tabbing		click here link, this is an aria described by
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Reading		link click here, this is an aria described by
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Tabbing	reads out aria-describedby twice	click here link, this is an aria described by, this is an aria described by
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Reading		link click here, use Jaws key plus ALT plus R to read descriptive text
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Tabbing	reads out aria-describedby twice	link click here, use Jaws key plus ALT plus R to read descriptive text, this is an aria described by, this is an aria described by
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Reading		link click here
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Tabbing	reads out aria-describedby twice	click here link, this is an aria described by, this is an aria described by
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Reading	reads out what's on screen - reasonable behavior	Link click here
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Tabbing	aria-describedby doesn't replace link text	Link click here
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Reading	reads out what's on screen - reasonable behavior	Link click here
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Tabbing	aria-describedby doesn't replace link text	Link click here
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Reading	aria-describedby is only read after long pause	Link, click here... The help tag is: this is an aria described by.
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Tabbing	aria-describedby is only read after long pause	Link, click here... The help tag is: this is an aria described by.
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Reading	aria-describedby is only read after long pause	Link, click here... The help tag is: this is an aria described by.
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Tabbing	aria-describedby is only read after long pause	Link, click here... The help tag is: this is an aria described by.
VoiceOver iOS 9.1	Safari iOS 9.1	Touch		Click here, link, this is an aria described by
VoiceOver iOS 8.4	Safari iOS 8.4	Touch		Click here, link, this is an aria described by
VoiceOver iOS 7.1	Safari iOS 7.1	Touch		Click here, link, this is an aria described by
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Reading		Link click here, this is an aria described by
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Tabbing		Click here link, this is an aria described by

SortSite rules: AccWcag1-13.1.2

Test notes

The threshold for inclusion in these results is 5% usage in the most recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Chrome and Android still fall below the 5% threshold.

All tests were carried out with screen reader factory settings. JAWS in particular has a wide variety of settings controlling exactly what gets spoken.

Screen readers allow users to interact in different modes, and can produce very different results in each mode. The modes used in these tests are:

• Reading Content read using the «read next» command in a screen reader
• Tabbing Content read using the «tab» key in a screen reader
• Heading Content read using the «next heading» key in a screen reader
• Touch Content read when touching an area of screen on a mobile device

In the «What the user hears» column:

• Commas represent short pauses in screen reader voicing
• Full Stops represent places where voicing stops, and the «read next» or «tab» or «next heading» command is pressed again
• Ellipsis … represent a long pause in voicing
• (Brackets) represent voicing that requires a keystroke to hear

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5.20 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Parse external SVG images
• Minor tweaks to report UI

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 44, Chrome 47, Opera 34 and Edge 13
• Updated to January 2016 HTML 5 validator checks (VNU 16.1.1)
• Further implementation of Matterhorn Protocol
• See full list of changed rules in engine 5.20

Fixes

• Updated to libpng 1.6.20
• Updated to giflib 5.1.1
• Stopped bogus DOM changes and CSS warnings appearing inside SVG element
• Was unable to scan pages that returned ‘201 Created’ HTTP code instead of ‘200 OK’
• Display warning if user tries to check Welcome page of application
• Handle regex literal / division operator ambiguity in JavaScript parser
• Handle name spaced attributes in HTML 5
• Fix issue with CSS cascade in DOM
• Various stability fixes

5.10 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Updated spelling dictionaries for English and French
• Export and Import settings now include user agent

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 41, Chrome 45, Opera 32, Safari 9 and Edge
• Updated to September 2015 HTML 5 validator checks
• Initial implementation of Matterhorn Protocol
• More reporting of user impact for screen reader problems
• See full list of changed rules in 5.10

Fixes

• Problem extracting links from pages with invalid HEAD element
• Cancelling a scan on a large site could take a long time
• Fixed spell check issue inside NOFRAMES
• Didn’t detect missing ALT for some types of PDF graphics
• Wasn’t able to scan when starting from an Angular #routing URL
• Reduced memory consumption on sites with lots of W3 validation errors

5.9 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Updated benchmarks to latest data
• Converted exported HTML reports to HTML5

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 39, Chrome 43, Opera 30
• See full list of changed rules in 5.9

Fixes

• Better help if site is blocked due to robots.txt
• Removed bogus characters that appeared when Excel CSV reports opened in Excel for Mac
• Fixed problem with some JavaScript links being case folded
• Fixed hex entity handling in links
• HTML5: Fixed problem with validation on pages with deeply nested DIVs
• HTML5: The CS language code (Czech) was incorrectly reported as deprecated
• HTML5: Treat role attribute as space separated list of ARIA roles
• HTML5: Fix problem validating camel case SVG attributes like viewBox

5.8 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added more information to the Issue Report and Link Report Excel exports
• Added more control over applying JavaScript DOM changes to Options window
• Removed obsolete Java applet and CGI scripts options (can be done via blocked links)

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 37, Chrome 41, Opera 28
• Updated to February 2015 version of Techniques for WCAG 2.0
• Updated to March 2015 HTML 5 validator checks
• See full list of changed rules in 5.8

Fixes

• Redirected pages display redirected URL instead of original URL
• Improvements handling AngularJS sites
• SVG elements incorrectly flagged as invalid in HTML5 doctype

5.7 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Various minor UI enhancements

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 35, Chrome 39, Opera 26 and Safari 8
• Updated to November 2014 HTML 5 validator checks
• See full list of changed rules in 5.7

Fixes

• Fixed issue extracting links from some invalid HTML files
• Treat http://www.example.com and http://www.example.com:80 as same site, but http://www.example.com:888 as different site
• Fixed problem scanning some PDFs
• Treat en-US and en-us as same language

5.6 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added support for Angular.js routing and Backbone/Angular/Mustache templates
• Added picker for choosing browser version for compatibility rules

Rule Changes

• Updated to September 2014 version of Techniques and Failures for WCAG 2.0
• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 32, Chrome 37, Opera 24 and iOS 8
• Updated to August 2014 HTML 5 validator checks
• See full list of changed rules in 5.6

Fixes

• Fixed problem checking corrupt PDFs
• Fixed problem checking deeply nested HTML5 files

5.5 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added Factory Reset button to Options window
• Spell check meta descriptions and titles
• End of scan notification if app is in background
• Modernized default user agent string

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 29, Chrome 35 and Opera 21
• Updated to April 2014 HTML 5 validator checks
• Updated to April 2014 version of Techniques and Failures for WCAG 2.0
• See full list of changed rules in 5.5

5.4 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added Open in New Window to right-click menu
• Added Check for Updates command to Help menu

Fixes

• Incorrect DOM changes applied inside TABLEs without TBODYs using XHTML 1.0 or 1.1 DOCTYPEs
• Stability improvements

Rule Changes

• Update compatibility checks to IE 11, Safari 7, Firefox 26, Chrome 31 and Opera 17
• Updated to December 2013 HTML 5 validator checks
• See full list of changed rules in 5.4

5.3 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Improved RTF export formatting in wider range of word processors
• Much faster scanning some sites that were very slow to scan in previous versions

Fixes

• Allow long user agent strings to be pasted into Options window
• Added support for PDF updates contained in XRefStms
• Treat robots.txt 401s and 403s the same as 404s
• Problem detecting broken links on sites that alias /page-name to /page-name/ and redirect from one to the other
• Fixed several problems scanning DOM
• Fixed crash scanning corrupt Excel and MP3 files
• Crash when printing empty map with no pages

Rule Changes

• Update compatibility checks to iOS 7, Firefox 24 and Chrome 29
• Updated to Sept 2013 HTML 5 validator checks
• Updated to Sept 2013 Techniques for WCAG2
• See full list of changed rules in 5.3

5.2 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Can now pause scans
• Exported HTML files are saved into a newly created sub-directory

Fixes

• Prevent PC going to sleep during a scan (unless battery low)
• Increased capacity of Additional Urls box in the New window
• Stats displayed in dashboard no longer affected by «pages shown for each issue» limit
• Improved stability in low memory conditions

Rule Changes

• Update compatibility checks to Firefox 21 and Chrome 27
• Updated to May 2013 HTML 5.0 validator checks
• Updated to April 2013 edition of Usability.gov guidelines
• Accessibility problems that only appear in specific browsers, now say which browsers are affected
• See full list of changed rules in 5.2

5.1 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added «What was Tested» tab to report
• Updated search engine rules
• Updated HTML 5.0 validation to December 2012 Candidate Recommendation
• No longer scans for IE 6 problems by default (use Choose Rules to scan for IE 6 problems)

Fixes

• Links with query parameters sometimes not extracted correctly from PDF files
• Performance enhancements scanning large documents
• Fixed crash scanning corrupt PDFs and PowerPoint files

Rule Changes

• Update compatibility checks to Firefox 19 and Chrome 24
• Fixed various false positives and false negatives
• See full list of changed rules in 5.1

5.0 Major Release

New Features

• Record and replay form actions (Pro version only)
• Detect changes made to pages by JavaScript
• Update compatibility checks to IE10, Firefox 16, Chrome 22, iOS 6, Safari 6, Opera 12
• Choose which browsers to test for browser compatibility
• HTML 5 validation
• Compliance tab is now labeled Privacy to reflect the issues it reports
• Performance improvements (2x faster scanning some sites)
• Removed «Link limit for running rules» setting (rules now run on pages with any number of links)

Fixes

• Fixed excessive memory use on some sites
• Embedded browser now renders in standards mode

Rule Changes

• Added rules to check HTML5 and ARIA
• Fixed various false positives and false negatives
• See full list of changed rules in 5.0

4.7 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Detect bogus rel=canonical links, which can cause massive loss of search traffic
• Excel exports include multiple line numbers, rather than just the first line number a problem occurred on
• Added Excel Inventory report export
• Added support for Chrome 20 and Firefox 14

Fixes

• The compatibility report summary counted disabled rules as failures
• Switching tabs in options window added duplicate items to user agent dropdown
• Fixed poor performance scanning PDFs with hundreds of pages

Rule Changes

• Don’t warn about vendor specific tags now standardized in HTML5 draft
• Restrict deprecated rules to the HTML version they’re deprecated in (some items deprecated in HTML4 are no longer deprecated in HTML5)
• Fixed various false positives and false negatives
• See full list of changed rules in 4.7

4.6 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added View Source command to right click menu
• Updated W3 DTDs to match validator.w3.org (pulls in fix for USEMAP in XHTML 1.1 Second Edition)
• Added compatibility checks for Firefox 9,10,11 and Chrome 16,17 versions
• Added support for CSS3 properties that have reach candidate recommendation status

Fixes

• Don’t detect broken anchors in non-standard CSS e.g. behavior:url(#default#SaveFavorite)
• Various false positives
• False negative: didn’t detect empty headings
• False negative: <A ONCLICK> with no HREF cannot be operated from keyboard
• Changed accessibility rules in 4.6

4.5 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added «Remove Word» command to spelling context menu
• Added support for iOS 5, plus recent Firefox and Chrome versions
• Replaced RuleId column with guidelines column in Issue Report - Excel (RuleId was an internal identifier)

Fixes

• Word RTF report displayed current date instead of date report exported
• 100% CPU processing HTML files containing very large base 64 XML data islands
• Markup like Emphasis was being reported as a spelling error
• Wrong line numbers sometimes reported for broken anchors
• Links with invalid URL schemes weren’t reported as broken (e.g. «Hhttpp://example.com»)
• Fixed problem where some URLs were displayed double encoded
• F1 key in New and About windows displayed an error message
• URLs typed into New window now added to recent URLs list
• Added timeouts to WHOIS lookups
• Fixed false positives
• Changed accessibility rules in 4.5

4.4 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added «Copy Link Address» command to context menu
• Added BlackBerry, Firefox 5 and Chrome 12 to browser compatibility tests
• Added auto complete for forms
• Added «Ignore Capitalized» option to spell checker

Fixes

• Expand All button in reports was slow on large sites with lots of errors
• Handle pages that specify different charsets in HTTP headers and META tags
• Handle windows-1256 (Arabic) correctly in rules
• Greatly reduced memory consumption running rules on large pages
• Fixed false positives and false negatives
• Changed accessibility rules in 4.4

4.3 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Updated browser compatibility tests to IE9, Opera 11 and Chrome 10
• Allow custom user agent to be specified
• Additional iOS and Android compatibility rules

Fixes

• Trim whitespace from end of blocked links
• Handle UTF-8 byte order mark when HTML charset not specified
• Changed accessibility rules in 4.3

4.2 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added compatibility rules for iPad / iPhone
• Added ability to check lists of pages (e.g. landing pages)
• Add ErrEmptyLink rule for detecting IMG SRC=«»
• Now reports list of pages blocked by robots.txt
• Updated Google and Bing guidelines

Fixes

• Problem displaying Source View for local files using ISO-8859-1 characters which don’t specify encoding
• Much faster switching between tabs on reports for very large sites
• Fixed various false positives
• Changed accessibility rules in 4.2

4.1 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added support for Windows-1256 (Arabic) and Windows-1255, ISO-8859-8 (Hebrew) charsets
• Added list of HTTP headers to Source View page
• Moved Back to Report command to Back button dropdown

Fixes

• Crash on some PDFs encrypted using AES encryption
• Heap corruption on PDFs with long attribute values
• Stability improvements in low memory conditions
• Allow words with apostrophes (e.g. O’Connell) to be added to dictionary
• Changed accessibility rules in 4.1

4.0 Major Release

New Features

• Added English and French spell checking
• Added accessibility and link checking inside PDF documents
• Added link checking inside Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents
• Allow #anchor links to be blocked
• Added Firefox 3.6 / Chrome 4.0 to compatibility report
• Added support for <LINK REL=«canonical» HREF=«…» >
• Added support for Lotus Domino
• Added required text rules (for checking analytics tags and disclaimers are present on every page)
• Added «Automatic Login» option

Fixes

• Scheduled site scans didn’t pick up some site changes
• Intermittent I/O pending error message when doing two Save As commands in a row
• Fixed various false positives
• Validation errors no longer reported on linked pages when using Check Pages and Links
• Stability improvements
• Changed accessibility rules in 4.0

3.5 Maintenance Release

New Features

• New Check Folder command (replaces «Follow Upwards Links» options checkbox)
• User interface improvements including customizable toolbars
• Added Firefox 3.5 compatibility checks
• Added Bing search engine guidelines
• Support for Windows 7

Fixes

• Fixed several false positives
• View Source showing blank pages when HTML meta tag specified invalid charset

3.4 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Extract sitemap directive from robots.txt
• Allow user to specify reading age of site audience
• Add expand all option to report pages
• Split large report pages
• Initial support for HTML 5

Fixes

• HTML entity references for accented uppercase European characters converted the accented chars to lowercase
• Clarified WCAG vs WCAG2 priorities in reports
• Non-responsive for long period if cannot contact WHOIS server
• Fixed several false positives
• Guideline names missing in Word RTF report
• Clearer error message when entire site blocked by robots.txt
• Print command was disabled for View Source pages

3.3 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Certified for Windows Vista
• Restore session state on Vista if app running when Windows Update restarts system
• Only show report tabs for active rule categories
• Added SeoBlankTitle rule for titles containing only spaces

Fixes

• Improved site structuring
• Fixed various false positives
• Fixed a loop affecting sites with a broken 404 handler and having an image with an empty SRC attribute
• Handle accented characters in UTF-8 encoded web pages better
• SEO keywords occurring after a flash movie were ignored
• Double dot appearing in export file names
• View Source didn’t display issues for empty pages with no source code
• Fixed memory leak loading saved reports

3.2 Maintenance Release

Fixes

• Excess use of disk space scanning large sites
• Handle CSS contextual selectors
• Can’t display Choose Rules window after using angle brackets custom error strings

3.1 Maintenance Release

Features

• Accessibility compatibility summary
• Browser compatibility summary
• Browser compatibility rules for IE8 and Chrome
• Page Weight rules

Fixes

• Several false positives
• «Not enough system resources» message on some machines
• Crash on sites with malformed A tag on home page
• Increased upper limit for Max Issues Per Page edit box

3.0 Major Release

Features

• WCAG2 accessibility guidelines
• Rule chooser dialog
• Import/export rule settings

Fixes

• Reduced memory consumption during scan
• Improved performance at end of scan
• Improved stability in low memory conditions
• Fixed hang affecting some sites
• Progress indicator appears if view source takes a while to display
• Faster saving reports
• Fixed false positives

2.8 Maintenance Release

Features

• Use site directory structure to guide map structure

Fixes

• Reduced memory consumption when drawing large reports
• Prevent saving a SortSite report over a PowerMapper site map
• Fixed a race condition when logging was turned off while writing to log

5.0 Major Release

New Features

• Parse external SVG images
• Minor tweaks to report UI
• Much faster starting
• Replaced Breakpad crash reporter with Crashpad

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 44, Chrome 47, Opera 34 and Edge 13
• Updated to January 2016 HTML 5 validator checks (VNU 16.1.1)
• Further implementation of Matterhorn Protocol
• See full list of changed rules in engine 5.20

Fixes

• Updated to libpng 1.6.20
• Updated to giflib 5.1.1
• Stopped bogus DOM changes and CSS warnings appearing inside SVG element
• Was unable to scan pages that returned ‘201 Created’ HTTP code instead of ‘200 OK’
• Display warning if user tries to check Welcome page of application
• Handle regex literal / division operator ambiguity in JavaScript parser
• Handle name spaced attributes in HTML 5
• Fix issue with CSS cascade in DOM
• Fix mislabelled fields in Reports tab of Scan Options
• Various stability fixes

4.0 Major Release

New Features

• Updated spelling dictionaries for English and French
• Export and Import settings now include user agent
• Can scan sites using HTTP basic authentication

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 41, Chrome 45, Opera 32, Safari 9 and Edge
• Updated to September 2015 HTML 5 validator checks
• Initial implementation of Matterhorn Protocol
• More reporting of user impact for screen reader problems
• See full list of changed rules in scan engine 5.10

Fixes

• Problem extracting links from pages with invalid HEAD element
• Cancelling a scan on a large site could take a long time
• Fixed spell check issue inside NOFRAMES
• Didn’t detect missing ALT for some types of PDF graphics
• Wasn’t able to scan when starting from an Angular #routing URL
• Reduced memory consumption on sites with lots of W3 validation errors
• Fixed a crash on OS X 10.11
• Fixed a problem where report sometimes wasn’t displayed

3.0 Major Release

New Features

• Added Export and Import Settings commands
• Added scheduler
• Updated benchmarks to latest data
• Converted exported HTML reports to HTML5

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 39, Chrome 43, Opera 30
• See full list of changed rules in scan engine 5.9

Fixes

• Better help if site is blocked due to robots.txt
• Removed bogus characters that appeared when Excel CSV reports opened in Excel for Mac
• Fixed problem with some JavaScript links being case folded
• Fixed hex entity handling in links
• HTML5: Fixed problem with validation on pages with deeply nested DIVs
• HTML5: The CS language code (Czech) was incorrectly reported as deprecated
• HTML5: Treat role attribute as space separated list of ARIA roles
• HTML5: Fix problem validating camel case SVG attributes like viewBox

2.0 Major Release

New Features

• Added more information to the Issue Report and Link Report Excel exports
• Added more control over applying JavaScript DOM changes to Options window
• Removed obsolete Java applet and CGI scripts options (can be done via blocked links)
• Added print command

Rule Changes

• Updated compatibility checks to Firefox 37, Chrome 41, Opera 28
• Updated to February 2015 version of Techniques for WCAG 2.0
• Updated to March 2015 HTML 5 validator checks
• See full list of changed rules in scan engine 5.8

Fixes

• Redirected pages display redirected URL instead of original URL
• Improvements handling AngularJS sites
• SVG elements incorrectly flagged as invalid in HTML5 doctype
• HTTP header names should be case-insensitive

1.0 Major Release

Features

• Initial release for Mac OS X, based on SortSite 5.7 for Windows

5.20 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Changed default graphics for 3D Buttons style

Fixes

• Updated to libpng 1.6.20
• Updated to giflib 5.1.1
• Was unable to scan pages that returned ‘201 Created’ HTTP code instead of ‘200 OK’
• Display warning if user tries to check Welcome page of application
• Various stability fixes

5.19 Maintenance Release

Fixes

• Fixed drawing problem with 3D buttons style on large sites
• Problem extracting links from pages with invalid HEAD element
• Cancelling a scan on a large site could take a long time

5.18 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Converted all site maps to HTML5

Fixes

• Better help if site is blocked due to robots.txt
• Fixed problem with some JavaScript links being case folded
• Fixed hex entity handling in links

5.17 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Higher quality (24-bit) thumbnails
• Changed default map font to Arial
• Added more control over applying JavaScript DOM changes to Options window
• Removed obsolete Java applet and CGI scripts options (can be done via blocked links)

Fixes

• Redirected pages display redirected URL instead of original URL
• Improvements handling AngularJS sites

5.16 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Various minor UI enhancements

Fixes

• Fixed issue extracting links from some invalid HTML files
• Treat http://www.example.com and http://www.example.com:80 as same site, but http://www.example.com:888 as different site

5.15 Maintenance Release

Fixes

• Fixed crash when drawing some large maps

5.14 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added Factory Reset button to Options window
• Added Additional URLs box to the New window
• End of scan notification if app is in background
• Modernized default user agent string

5.13 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added Open in New Window to right-click menu
• Added Check for Updates command to Help menu

Fixes

• Stability improvements

5.12 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Much faster scanning some sites that were very slow to scan in previous versions

Fixes

• Allow long user agent strings to be pasted into Options window
• Treat robots.txt 401s and 403s the same as 404s
• Problem detecting broken links on sites that alias /page-name to /page-name/ and redirect from one to the other
• Crash when printing empty map with no pages

5.11 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Can now pause scans
• Exported HTML files are saved into a newly created sub-directory

Fixes

• Prevent PC going to sleep during a scan (unless battery low)
• Page title ignored if preceded by script tag containing script tag embedded in a JavaScript string
• Thousands separator in imported CSVs was interpreted as decimal point on some locale settings
• Handle old-style Mac OS 9 line endings in imported CSVs (Linux and OSX line endings already worked)
• Improved stability in low memory conditions

5.10 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Map structuring algorithm now uses site navigation bar as a structuring hint

Fixes

• Links with query parameters sometimes not extracted correctly from PDF files
• Performance enhancements scanning large documents

5.9 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Performance improvements (33% faster scanning some sites)

Fixes

• Fixed GDI resources leak in 3D Buttons style
• Fixed excessive memory use on some sites

5.8 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Improved short title generation

Fixes

• Switching tabs in options window added duplicate items to user agent dropdown
• Fixed poor performance scanning PDFs with hundreds of pages

5.7 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added View Source command to right click menu

Fixes

• Handle zero sized thumbnail images caused by buggy display driver
• Avoid blank thumbnail images on pages that only contain Flash movies or META refresh directives

5.6 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added «Zoom» command to toolbar

Fixes

• 100% CPU processing HTML files containing very large base 64 XML data islands
• Missing down arrow graphic on View Schedule page
• F1 key in New and about windows displayed an error message
• URLs typed into New window now added to recent URLs list

5.5 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added «Copy Link Address» command to context menu
• Added auto complete for forms

Fixes

• Handle pages that specify different charsets in HTTP headers and META tags
• Excel Link Report export now much faster
• Some CSV exports contained duplicate rows for page titles with unusual characters like the TM symbol

5.4 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Allow custom user agent to be specified

Fixes

• Trim whitespace from end of blocked links
• Surround URLs in quotes in exported CSV files
• Handle UTF-8 byte order mark when HTML charset not specified
• Don’t include 404 links in exported Google Sitemaps
• Fix scrolling issue when expanding Tree View and Tree View 2.0 styles

5.3 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Font style and color settings for all map styles
• Add notes export to Excel CSV export formats
• Now reports list of pages blocked by robots.txt

Fixes

• Some deep pages not displayed on Table Map and Yehaa map styles

5.2 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Added support for Lotus Domino
• Added Edit Notes and Delete Page commands to popup menu
• Added custom thumbnail size setting
• Added «Automatic Login» option
• Added support for Windows-1256 (Arabic) and Windows-1255, ISO-8859-8 (Hebrew) charsets
• Navigation tree expansion state now saved
• Export and import page titles to CSV (allows batch editing in Excel)
• Moved Back to Map command to Back button dropdown

Fixes

• Drag and drop sometimes behaved unexpectedly in 5.1
• Disable unsupported export formats rather than warning they’re unsupported
• Print always disabled for maps with pathnames containing accented characters
• Some changes not flagged as changes until map refreshed when Manual Refresh was set

5.1 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Enhanced printing options (Margins and Fit Each Page)
• Added color coding to Thermometer graph style
• Print Preview defaults to showing 2 pages side by side
• Allow #anchor links to be blocked

Fixes

• Trial version issue exporting CSV files from sites with robots.txt file
• Issue importing some XML files
• Intermittent I/O pending error message when doing two Save As commands in a row
• Include PDFs in Google sitemaps
• Stability improvements
• Pages that timed out during download showed as OK in Page Issues window
• Not following links in some SWF files
• Print layout problems in some map styles
• Page header M of N pages wrong when range of pages printed
• Page count in Site Properties tab wrong if site has redirected pages

5.0 Major Release

New Features

• Additional map styles
• Import analytics or SEO data from XML or CSV
• Visualize analytics or SEO data using DataMaps
• Add notes to maps
• Extract links from Flash sites
• Resizable page thumbnails
• Support for non-European character sets including Japanese, Chinese and Korean
• User interface improvements including customizable toolbars and new map wizard
• Export meta data
• Support for Windows 7

Fixes

• Much faster making changes to map styles

4.19 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Enhanced Excel Site Tree export
• Enhanced Find Page command
• Improved site structuring

Fixes

• Problem printing Thumb Tree and Electrum 2.0 styles
• Double dot appearing in export file names

4.18 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Highlight pages on map when clicking on pages in outline view
• Added Excel Link Report export
• Added Excel Site Tree export

Fixes

• Excess use of disk space scanning large sites
• «Not enough system resources» message on some machines
• Crash on sites with malformed A tag on home page

4.17 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Highlight pages on map when clicking on pages in outline view
• Added Excel Link Report export
• Added Excel Site Tree export

Fixes

• Improved stability in low memory conditions
• Treat /news.htm as parent of /news/aug.htm
• Fixed hang affecting some sites

4.16 Maintenance Release

New Features

• Find Page command on right click menu
• Use site directory structure to guide map structure

Fixes

• Accented French/German characters were dropped in CSV export
• HEAD start tag was missing on some map styles (though it’s optional in HTML4)
• Reduced memory consumption when drawing large maps
• Prevent saving a SortSite report over a PowerMapper site map
• Fixed a race condition when logging was turned off while writing to log

3.0 Major Release

New Features

• Much faster starting
• Replaced Breakpad crash reporter with Crashpad

Fixes

• Updated to libpng 1.6.20
• Updated to giflib 5.1.1
• Was unable to scan pages that returned ‘201 Created’ HTTP code instead of ‘200 OK’
• Display warning if user tries to check Welcome page of application
• Various stability fixes

2.0 Major Release

Features

• Can scan sites using HTTP basic authentication.
• Functionally identical to PowerMapper 5.19 for Windows with the exception of some map customization options.

Fixes

• Fixed drawing problem with 3D buttons style on large sites.
• Problem extracting links from pages with invalid HEAD section.
• Cancelling a scan on a large site could take a long time.
• Fixed a crash on OS X 10.11.
• Fixed a problem where site map sometimes wasn’t displayed.

1.0 Major Release

Features

• Initial release for Mac OS X.
• Functionally identical to PowerMapper 5.18 for Windows with the exception of some map customization options.

SortSite automatically scans entire websites for over 700 quality issues including: accessibility; browser compatibility; broken links; privacy standards; search optimization; usability and web standards.

Learn More

Find out more about SortSite.

• Benefits of SortSite
• List of Tests and Checkpoints
• Compare SortSite Editions (Standard, Professional and OnDemand)
• What's New in SortSite 5
• Version History - Desktop Editions

See it in Action

Example reports produced by SortSite, and free trials.

• Example Reports
• Try It

White Papers and Datasheets

Get in-depth technical information about SortSite features, benefits, and capabilities.

• SortSite Desktop Datasheet (PDF)
• SortSite Technical Overview (PDF)
• SortSite Reviewers Guide (PDF)

Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

White papers, technical data sheets, support information and system requirements.

White papers and datasheets

• SortSite OnDemand Datasheet (PDF)

Other resources

• List of Tests and Checkpoints
• FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
• Section 508 VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)
• Knowledge Base

System requirements

System requirements for the OnDemand Suite are:

• Runs in any modern web browser (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 7+)
• Runs on any device (Mac, PC, iPad, Android, Chromebook, Linux)
• No installation required

The suite is also available as a desktop application.

Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Summary

This post describes how table cell headers for screen-readers are calculated.

• TH with SCOPE=ROW or SCOPE=COL is unambiguous and widely supported
• TD with SCOPE is non-conforming in HTML 5, and is ignored as a header on some browsers (works in Apple WebKit, but ignored in Chromium WebKit).
• On tables with headers in the top row, or first column, TH without SCOPE usually works.
• TD HEADERS is problematic because it assumes a single list of headers for each cell, but accessibility APIs expose row and column headers as separate properties
• On any other table, TH without SCOPE produces wildly varying results.

Native role for TH and TD

This table shows how native role for TH and TD elements is calculated by different browsers and screen-readers. It’s based on an inspection of screen reader and browser code (see below for full details).

Native role calculations starts with the most specific conditions at the top of the table and works downwards until a role is found. N/A indicates a condition not used in the role calculation by a specific AT.

Notes

(1) This table shows the main interoperability issues, but is a simplification and doesn’t capture all of the implementation subtleties in edge cases.

(2) Some accessibility tree implementations (Firefox, Blink) only allow an element to have a single native role. This is an issue because table headers sometimes have multiple roles. For example:

• When using the TD headers attribute
• The TH at position 1,1 is sometimes both a row and column header

(3) Only if TH not enclosed by TFOOT

(4) Only if TH not enclosed by THEAD

Header calculation

Most accessibility APIs expose separate column headers and row headers properties for each cell. This allows screen readers to voice column headers when moving along a row, voice row headers when moving up or down a column, and provide separate commands to announce row or column header.

This table shows the column and row headers calculation for each TD cell, using the role calculated above:

What the specs say

Modern accessibility APIs expose separate ColHeaders and RowHeaders properties for each cell:

• IAccessible2 IAccessibleTableCell
• UIA ITableItemProvider
• NSAccessibility

There’s a detailed description of table cell header calculation in the HTML 5 spec: https://www.w3.org/TR/html5/tabular-data.html#header-and-data-cell-semantics

There’s also a detailed description of cell header calculation in the HTML 4.01 spec, which differs from the HTML 5 algorithm: https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/tables.html#h-11.4.3

Unfortunately, both the HTML 4.01 and 5.0 algorithms assume that row and column headers form a single list of headers for a cell (as does the TD HEADERS attribute). That means that neither algorithm works with the ColHeaders and RowHeaders properties exposed in current accessibility APIs.

Some implementations (Firefox and NVDA/IE) go to heroic lengths to guess whether items listed in TD HEADERS should be exposed to the API as column headers or row headers. Other implementations (Safari / VoiceOver) just assume they’re column headers.

How the implementations actually work

NVDA with IE

NVDA with Internet Explorer uses the MSAA accessibility API which requires NVDA to implement its own role and header calculations:

Role calculation:

1. TD is always a cell (SCOPE is ignored and HEADERS references only work with TH elements)
2. TH with SCOPE=ROW is a row header (SCOPE=ROWGROUP ignored)
3. TH with SCOPE=COL is a column header (SCOPE=COLGROUP ignored)
4. TH without SCOPE in first column is a row header
5. TH without SCOPE in top row is a column header
6. Any other TH is treated as a non-header cell
7. ARIA role is ignored in TH role calculation

Note: NVDA/IE allows cells to have both row header and column header roles, which is useful in some type of table.

NVDA maintains lists of row headers and column headers for each cell:

1. TD with HEADERS list
   • THs listed in HEADERS list with row header role are added to the TD’s row header list
   • THs listed in HEADERS list with column header role are added to the TD’s column header list
2. TD without HEADERS
   • Add all THs above TD with role = column header to TD column headers
   • Add all THs to left of TD with role = row header to TD row headers

The main logic is in fillVBuf_helper_collectAndUpdateTableInfo, and the code is in the NVDA GitHub repository

NVDA with Firefox

NVDA with Firefox uses the IAccessible2 API, so the role and name calculation is done by Firefox and exposed through IAccessible2.

Role calculation:

1. TH or TD with SCOPE=COL or SCOPE=COLGROUP is a column header
2. TH or TD with SCOPE=ROW or SCOPE=ROWGROUP is a row header
3. TH with TD to the right is a row header
4. TH with TD below is a column header
5. TH not matching any of the above : guess based on TH ROWSPAN attribute
6. TD without scope is a cell

Header calculation:

1. If TD HEADERs list specified
   • Add all items in list with role = column header role to TD column headers
   • Add all items in list with in same column with role != role header to TD column headers
   • Add all items in list with role = row header role to TD row headers
   • Add all items in list with in same row with role != column header to TD row headers
2. If no TD HEADERs
   • Add all cells above TD with role = column header to TD column headers
   • Add all cells to left of TD with role = row header to TD row headers

The code is the Mozilla HTMLTableAccessible class

NVDA with Chrome

NVDA with Chrome uses the IAccessible2 API, so the role and name calculation is done by Chrome and exposed through IAccessible2.

Role calculation:

1. TD is always a cell (SCOPE and ROLE are ignored)
2. TH with SCOPE=COL or SCOPE=COLGROUP is a column header
3. TH with SCOPE=ROW or SCOPE=ROWGROUP is a row header
4. TH with TH to left is a column header
5. TH with TD to left is a row header
6. TH with TH to right is a column header
7. TH with TD to right is a row header
8. Any other TH is a column header

Header calculation:

1. Column headers for TD are all cells in same column with column header role
2. Row headers for TD are all cells in same row with row header role
3. The TD HEADERS attribute is ignored

The main logic is in scanToDecideHeaderRole, and the code is in the Chromium AXTableCell class

Safari with Voiceover

Safari WebKit role calculation:

1. ARIA role if provided
2. TH or TD with SCOPE=COL or SCOPE=COLGROUP is a column header
3. TH or TD with SCOPE=ROW or SCOPE=ROWGROUP is a row header
4. TD without SCOPE is a cell
5. TH in a THEAD is a column header
6. TH in top row and not in TFOOT is a column header
7. TH in first column and not in THEAD is a row header
8. TH matching none of the above is a cell (i.e. not a header)

This means it’s possible to have TH’s in Safari which aren’t treated as headers. For example, any TH that’s outside THEAD and not in the first row or first column is treated as a TD.

Note: Safari allows cells to be both row header and column headers, which is useful in some type of table.

The WebKit header calculation builds up a list of row and column headers for each cell by:

1. If a TD has a HEADERS attribute:
   • Add all cells listed in HEADERS attribute to column headers
   • Leave row headers empty
2. If no HEADERS attribute
   • Add all cells above TD with role = column header to TD column headers
   • Add all cells to left of TD with role = row header to TD row headers

See the role calculation above for determination of cell and row headers.

Note The VoiceOver API exposes column headers (read when moving horizontally along a row) and row headers (read when moving up or down a table column) as separate properties. The HEADERS attribute always maps to column headers in VoiceOver (even for headers with row header role), so are not read when moving up or down a column.

The code is in the Safari AccessibilityTableCell class.

Visual sitemaps are used by web development teams to document website structure. They are often produced during content audits and website redesigns, but are hard to produce, especially for sites with more than a few hundred pages.

PowerMapper is a graphical sitemap generator which excels at reverse-engineering sitemaps from existing websites. It scans all a site's pages, capturing thumbnails and meta data for each page, then draws these on a map.

Ticketed support is available from support@powermapper.com

This posting summarizes some detailed research into the state of government accessibility standards around the world, as of November 2015. Usually these evolve fairly slowly, although the Jodhan vs. Attorney General of Canada case may change that (governments don’t like being successfully sued by their citizens).

In general, these standards apply to government agency websites (and not commercial web sites) with the exception of Australia and Norway where commercial sites are also required to comply. Other countries have disability discrimination laws which cover websites, but these don’t specify the technical standards required to comply with the law.

This table shows government accessibility standards, and relevant legislation, in 18 territories:

† Irony Alert: the European resolution insists web site documents should be clear and simple, but kicks off with 22 paragraphs of incomprehensible bureaucratic text. Here’s an example:

whereas the internet as a part of society is an instrument for society as a whole, so it is fundamental that technologically neutral access to public information is offered for all groups in society…

The key takeaway from this research: adoption of WCAG 2 is progressing steadily and becoming increasingly important:

• The governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain and the UK have already adopted WCAG 2.
• In the US, Section 508 is being (slowly) refreshed to harmonize with WCAG 2.
• The European Commission has moved to WCAG 2 as a European government standard.

Last updated: April 5, 2016

Expected Result: causes problems in some screen readers

Actual Result: causes problems in 21 screen reader / browser combinations

Code used for this test:

<p>Preceding content</p>
        <a href='javascript:void(0);'></a>
    

Change History

Last updated: April 5, 2016

• NVDA with IE Worse - was OK in NVDA 2014.1, but now causes problems in NVDA 2015.2
• NVDA with FF Causes problems in NVDA 2015.2
• JAWS with IE Causes problems from JAWS 14.0.9002 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• JAWS with FF Causes problems from JAWS 14.0.9002 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• VoiceOver OS X Stable - OK from VoiceOver OSX 10.9 to VoiceOver OSX 10.10
• VoiceOver iOS Better - caused problems in VoiceOver iOS 8.4, but now OK in VoiceOver iOS 9.1
• WindowEyes with IE Worse - was OK in WindowEyes 8.4, but now causes problems in WindowEyes 9.2

Screen reader	Browser	Mode	Notes	What the user hears
NVDA 2015.2	FF41	Reading	Link not displayed, and not read.
NVDA 2015.2	FF41	Tabbing	Link not displayed, "blank" read out for focusable label.	Blank
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Reading	Link not displayed, but link URL read out.	Link void zero
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Tabbing	Link not displayed, but link URL read out.	Void zero, link
NVDA 2014.1	FF29	Reading	Link not displayed, and not read.
NVDA 2014.1	FF29	Tabbing	Link not displayed, "blank" read out for focusable label.	Blank
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Reading	Link not displayed, but link URL read out.	Link void zero
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Tabbing	Link not displayed, and not read.
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF41	Reading	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF41	Tabbing	No link displayed, focus indicator very hard to see, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Void left paren zero right paren, link
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Reading	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Tabbing	No link displayed, focus indicator very hard to see, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Void left paren zero right paren, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Reading	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Tabbing	No link displayed, focus indicator very hard to see, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Void left paren zero right paren, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Reading	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Tabbing	No link displayed, focus indicator very hard to see, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Void left paren zero right paren, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Reading	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Tabbing	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Void left paren zero right paren, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Reading	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Tabbing	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Void left paren zero right paren, link
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Reading	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Tabbing	No link displayed, link gibberish read by screen reader.	Link, void left paren zero right paren
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Reading	Not visible in browser, and ignored in WindowEyes.
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Tabbing	Text of previous element read as link label.	Link, preceding content
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 9.0.1	Reading	Link not displayed, and not read.
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 9.0.1	Tabbing	Link not displayed, and not read.
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Reading	Link not displayed, and not read.
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Tabbing	Link not displayed, and not read.
VoiceOver iOS 9.1	Safari iOS 9.1	Touch	Link not displayed, and not read.
VoiceOver iOS 8.4	Safari iOS 8.4	Touch	Text of previous element read out as link label.	Preceding content, link
VoiceOver iOS 7.1	Safari iOS 7.1	Touch	Link not visible in browser, and ignored in VoiceOver.

SortSite rules: AccWcag1-13.1.1

Test notes

The threshold for inclusion in these results is 5% usage in the most recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Chrome and Android still fall below the 5% threshold.

All tests were carried out with screen reader factory settings. JAWS in particular has a wide variety of settings controlling exactly what gets spoken.

Screen readers allow users to interact in different modes, and can produce very different results in each mode. The modes used in these tests are:

• Reading Content read using the «read next» command in a screen reader
• Tabbing Content read using the «tab» key in a screen reader
• Heading Content read using the «next heading» key in a screen reader
• Touch Content read when touching an area of screen on a mobile device

In the «What the user hears» column:

• Commas represent short pauses in screen reader voicing
• Full Stops represent places where voicing stops, and the «read next» or «tab» or «next heading» command is pressed again
• Ellipsis … represent a long pause in voicing
• (Brackets) represent voicing that requires a keystroke to hear

Last updated: April 5, 2016

Expected Result: causes problems in some screen readers

Actual Result: causes problems in 17 screen reader / browser combinations

WCAG Technique: F22

Code used for this test:

<a href='http://www.example.com' target='_blank'>Example</a>
    

Change History

Last updated: April 5, 2016

• NVDA with IE Causes problems from NVDA 2014.1 to NVDA 2015.2
• NVDA with FF Causes problems from NVDA 2014.1 to NVDA 2015.2
• JAWS with IE Causes problems from JAWS 15.0.9023 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• JAWS with FF Causes problems from JAWS 14.0.9002 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• VoiceOver OS X Causes problems from VoiceOver OSX 10.9 to VoiceOver OSX 10.10
• VoiceOver iOS Causes problems from VoiceOver iOS 7.1 to VoiceOver iOS 9.1
• WindowEyes with IE Causes problems from WindowEyes 8.4 to WindowEyes 9.2

Screen reader	Browser	Mode	Notes	What the user hears
NVDA 2015.2	FF41	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
NVDA 2014.1	FF29	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF41	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, says "new tab link" first time link clicked (but not on subsequent clicks).	Example, link. New tab page.
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, says "new tab link" first time link clicked.	Example, link. New tab link.
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Link, example
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Link, example
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 9.0.1	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Tabbing	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
VoiceOver iOS 9.1	Safari iOS 9.1	Touch	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
VoiceOver iOS 8.4	Safari iOS 8.4	Touch	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link
VoiceOver iOS 7.1	Safari iOS 7.1	Touch	No indication a new window will open before clicking link, or that one has opened after clicking link.	Example, link

SortSite rules: AccWcag1-10.1.2

Test notes

The threshold for inclusion in these results is 5% usage in the most recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Chrome and Android still fall below the 5% threshold.

All tests were carried out with screen reader factory settings. JAWS in particular has a wide variety of settings controlling exactly what gets spoken.

Screen readers allow users to interact in different modes, and can produce very different results in each mode. The modes used in these tests are:

• Reading Content read using the «read next» command in a screen reader
• Tabbing Content read using the «tab» key in a screen reader
• Heading Content read using the «next heading» key in a screen reader
• Touch Content read when touching an area of screen on a mobile device

In the «What the user hears» column:

• Commas represent short pauses in screen reader voicing
• Full Stops represent places where voicing stops, and the «read next» or «tab» or «next heading» command is pressed again
• Ellipsis … represent a long pause in voicing
• (Brackets) represent voicing that requires a keystroke to hear

Last updated: April 5, 2016

Expected Result: causes problems in some screen readers

Actual Result: causes problems in 5 screen reader / browser combinations

Code used for this test:

<a href='4567.html' title='this is a link title'><img src='1234.png'></a>
    

Change History

Last updated: April 5, 2016

• NVDA with IE Stable - OK from NVDA 2012.3 to NVDA 2015.2
• NVDA with FF Better - caused problems in NVDA 2012.1, but now OK in NVDA 2015.2
• JAWS with IE Stable - OK from JAWS 13.0.852 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• JAWS with FF Stable - OK from JAWS 13.0.852 to JAWS 16.0.4350
• VoiceOver OS X Better - caused problems in VoiceOver OSX 10.9, but now OK in VoiceOver OSX 10.10
• VoiceOver iOS Stable - OK from VoiceOver iOS 7.1 to VoiceOver iOS 9.1
• WindowEyes with IE Better - caused problems in WindowEyes 8.4, but now OK in WindowEyes 9.2
• SaToGo with IE OK in SaToGo 3.4.96.0

Screen reader	Browser	Mode	Notes	What the user hears
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Reading		Link, this is a link title
NVDA 2015.2	FF40	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
NVDA 2015.2	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Reading		Link, this is a link title
NVDA 2014.1	FF28	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
NVDA 2014.1	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Reading	nothing read, and no indication of link	Blank
NVDA 2012.1	FF28	Tabbing	nothing read, and no indication of link	Blank
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
NVDA 2012.3	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 16.0.4350	FF40	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 16.0.4350	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 15.0.9023	FF29	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 15.0.9023	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 14.0.9002	FF29	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 14.0.9002	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 13.0.852	FF28	Tabbing"this		is a link title, link
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
JAWS 13.0.852	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, link
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
WindowEyes 9.2	IE11	Tabbing		Link, this is a link title
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Reading	Reads out path of link	Link test slash forty five sixty seven dot html
WindowEyes 8.4	IE11	Tabbing		Link, this is a link title
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Reading		Link image, this is a link title
VoiceOver OSX 10.10	Safari 8.0.6	Tabbing		Link image, this is a link title
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Reading	Reads out filename of image	Link image one two three four PNG, this is a link title
VoiceOver OSX 10.9	Safari 7.0.3	Tabbing	Reads out filename of image	Link image one two three four PNG, this is a link title
VoiceOver iOS 9.1	Safari iOS 9.1	Touch		This is a link title, link image
VoiceOver iOS 8.4	Safari iOS 8.4	Touch		This is a link title, link image
VoiceOver iOS 7.1	Safari iOS 7.1	Touch		This is a link title, link image
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Reading		Link, this is a link title
SaToGo 3.4.96.0	IE11	Tabbing		This is a link title, Link

SortSite rules: AccWcag1-13.1.1

Test notes

The threshold for inclusion in these results is 5% usage in the most recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Chrome and Android still fall below the 5% threshold.

All tests were carried out with screen reader factory settings. JAWS in particular has a wide variety of settings controlling exactly what gets spoken.

Screen readers allow users to interact in different modes, and can produce very different results in each mode. The modes used in these tests are:

• Reading Content read using the «read next» command in a screen reader
• Tabbing Content read using the «tab» key in a screen reader
• Heading Content read using the «next heading» key in a screen reader
• Touch Content read when touching an area of screen on a mobile device

In the «What the user hears» column:

• Commas represent short pauses in screen reader voicing
• Full Stops represent places where voicing stops, and the «read next» or «tab» or «next heading» command is pressed again
• Ellipsis … represent a long pause in voicing
• (Brackets) represent voicing that requires a keystroke to hear