13 of 86 rules
Voice control
Voice control matches what somebody says out loud against the labels they can see. Say "click Add to basket" and the software goes looking for a control whose name contains those words. The visible label is the command, which makes this the one input method where the words on a button are functional rather than decorative. It ships with macOS, iOS, Windows and Android, so most people using it are using software that came with the device.
What tends to break
The failure is nearly always an accessible name that does not contain the visible words. Somebody adds an aria-label to make a screen reader announcement read better, the button still says "Search" on screen, the name underneath it is now "Submit query", and the spoken command finds nothing at all. The control looks perfect and cannot be operated. There is a worse version, where a name matching something else on screen becomes a hidden command that fires when nobody asked for it. The rule itself is looser than the advice, and worth stating properly. It asks that the accessible name contain the visible text rather than match it exactly, so "Search for a value" is a legal name for a button labelled Search. Most of the rules here sit at Level A, and many of them are the keyboard and pointer rules, because a speech-controlled mouse emulator hits the same walls a switch does. Nobody has measured how many people use voice control, so treat any figure you get quoted as an invention.
Level A, 9 rules
- 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
Screen reader users depend on this rule above everyone else, and braille display users read the same structure. Voice control users need a control's visible label to match its accessible name, or the spoken command finds nothing to act on. Reader-mode users, and anyone whose browser or extension rebuilds the page, rely on the same markup underneath.
- 2.1.1 Keyboard
This affects blind users driving a screen reader from the keyboard, speech-input users whose software sends keystrokes on their behalf, people using sip-and-puff systems, on-screen keyboards, scanning software or an alternate keyboard, people with tremors or limited hand dexterity, and low-vision users who find tracking a pointer harder than pressing a key.
- 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap
This affects every keyboard-dependent visitor, including screen-reader users, switch-device users, speech-input users whose software sends keystrokes, and sighted people who simply prefer typing to clicking.
- 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts
This affects speech-input users, whose dictation is a stream of the same characters a shortcut listens for, keyboard users with a tremor who brush a key and lose their place in a long page, and people with some cognitive disabilities, who benefit from remapping so the same shortcut does the same thing across every application they use.
- 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)
This affects screen-reader users navigating by link list, voice-control users who speak a link's visible name to follow it, people with motion impairments who need to know which links to skip, and anyone reading search results where the link text is the whole preview.
- 2.5.1 Pointer Gestures
This affects people with limited dexterity or tremors, people using a head pointer, eye-gaze system, prosthetic or speech-controlled mouse emulator, people working one-handed, screen-reader users on touchscreens whose own software eats the gesture before the page sees it, and people with cognitive or learning disabilities who can fall back on a plain tap where a custom gesture makes no sense to them.
- 2.5.3 Label in Name
This affects voice-control users, whose spoken commands target the labels they can see, screen-reader users who hear one thing while a sighted colleague reads another, people using text-to-speech alongside the visible page, and people with cognitive difficulties who use speech and would otherwise memorise a second name for every control.
- 3.3.7 Redundant Entry
People with motor disabilities, including anybody using switch control or voice input, pay for every keystroke twice. People with memory and cognitive disabilities have to rebuild an answer they already gave, sometimes with no way to check what it was. And anybody deep in a long process is more tired at step five than at step one, which is exactly when the form asks them to do it all again.
- 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value
Screen reader users hear nothing useful, or hear only that something is clickable, which is what VoiceOver says about any element carrying a click handler. Either way they cannot tell what the control does, or whether it is a control at all. Voice-control users cannot speak the name to activate it, because there is no name to speak. And a user working a slider through their own assistive technology cannot move it when the value is exposed but not settable. That satisfies half this rule and fails the other half.
Level AA, 1 rule
- 2.5.7 Dragging Movements
This affects people with limited dexterity, tremors or fatigue-related conditions, people using a trackball, head pointer, eye-gaze system or speech-controlled mouse emulator, and anyone using a site one-handed on a moving train.
Level AAA, 3 rules
No law names AAA as a blanket duty, but these are where the remaining barriers for people who operate the page by speaking to it usually sit.
- 2.1.3 Keyboard (No Exception)
Keyboard users, switch users and voice control users all reach a page through a keyboard interface, which is why this goes further than people typing on a physical keyboard.
- 2.4.12 Focus Not Obscured (Enhanced)
Sighted keyboard users are the main group, and that includes people using speech input, sip-and-puff switches, on-screen keyboards and scanning software. People with low vision using magnification, and people with attention or short-term memory limitations, are the other two W3C names.
- 2.5.6 Concurrent Input Mechanisms
Anybody who alternates input methods, which covers most touchscreen laptop users and most assistive technology users. W3C's own examples name a reader with a mobility impairment pairing a keyboard and mouse to a phone, somebody with hand tremors or limited dexterity reaching for the keyboard when a target is too small for the touchscreen, and a speech-input user switching to the mouse when a colleague starts talking.
How this list was made
Each rule appears here because its own note about who it affects names people who operate the page by speaking to it. That keeps this page and the rule pages saying the same thing, and it makes the list narrower than every rule that could matter, because a rule helping these readers without saying so does not turn up. Start with this, then read the full Level AA set, which is what the laws actually name.
Other groups
- Blind and screen reader users40 rules
- Low vision35 rules
- Deaf and hard of hearing9 rules
- Motor and keyboard-only33 rules
- Cognitive and learning50 rules
- Seizures and vestibular disorders4 rules