Technique F72:Failure of Success Criterion 1.1.1 due to using ASCII art without providing a text alternative
About this Technique
This technique relates to 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Failure).
This failure applies to any technology.
Failure techniques show examples of how content can fail particular WCAG success criteria. However, content may still satisfy those criteria if it includes equivalent/alternative content or functionality that does meet the normative requirements. See About WCAG Techniques.
Description
The objective of this failure condition is to avoid the use of ASCII art when a text alternative is not provided. Although ASCII art is implemented as a character string, its meaning comes from the pattern of glyphs formed by a visual presentation of that string, not from the text itself. Therefore ASCII art is non-text content and requires a text alternative. Text alternatives, or links to them, should be placed near the ASCII art in order to be associated with it.
Examples
Example 1: ASCII Art chart without a text alternative
The following ASCII art chart lacks a text alternative and therefore does not meet Success Criterion 1.1.1. Note this failure example does in fact cause this page to fail, but you may skip over the example.
% __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
100 | * |
90 | * * |
80 | * * |
70 | @ * |
60 | @ * |
50 | * @ * |
40 | @ * |
30 | * @ @ @ * |
20 | |
10 | @ @ @ @ @ |
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
Flash frequency (Hz)
Tests
Procedure
- Access a page with ASCII art.
- For each instance of ASCII art, check that it has a text alternative.
Expected Results
- If check #2 is false, then this failure condition applies and the content fails this Success Criterion.