Overview of Meaningful Sequence
Purpose
Individuals that rely on screen readers must have a single defined path to read all content of a page. In the English language, Left to right, and top to bottom works most of the time. Columns, tables, and forms might require some consideration.
While there can be debate. Should one piece of content be programmatically before another? As long as the content is independent of each other, any answer will meet this success criteria. For example, newspapers have many articles that are independent of each other. It is subjective as to what the “right” read order should be. Yet, to meet this requirement only one logical order needs to be defined, it doesn’t matter which one it is.
While related, tab order (the order of elements that receive focus as the user presses the tab key on their keyboard) will be specifically addressed within Success Criterion 2.4.3 Focus Order.
How to Test
- Manual review with a screen reader, looking for
Best Practices
Provide a logical and programmatic reading order
For text to communicate properly, it must be written and organized in a meaningful sequence. Communicating information in a logical sequences to aid in understanding.
In this example from the Equal Entry Homepage the content under Expert Audits is read before the content of Training Materials, and so on. Providing a logical read order.
Exceptions
None
References
Meaningful Sequence: Understanding SC 1.3.2