Success criterion 1.3.6
Identify Purpose
The purpose of user interface components, icons, and regions can be programmatically determined.
- Level AAA
- Principle 1: Perceivable
- Guideline 1.3: Adaptable
In a user’s words
“I swap your icons for symbols I already know. That only works if your page tells my browser what each thing is for.”
What each role can do
- Product manager
- Plan for personalization: require that regions, controls and icons expose their purpose.
- Designer
- Use conventional icons and landmark regions so purpose is predictable and can be mapped to personal symbols.
- Developer
- Mark up regions with landmarks and give controls and inputs machine-readable purpose (ARIA, autocomplete tokens).
- Tester
- Test with a personalization or symbol-substitution extension and confirm each control keeps its meaning.
Once it is fixed
“My symbols, your site, and it all still makes sense. Thanks for speaking my shorthand!”
Share this with your team
The quotes are written to illustrate the criterion. They are not testimonials from real people. For the official wording, find 1.3.6 in the W3C quick reference for WCAG 2.2 (opens in a new tab).
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