Divide information into appropriate manageable groups |
WAI / WCAG 1.0 Priority 2 checkpoint 12.3
Issue Description Ensure that text contained in the page is appropriately divided into manageable groups (headings, list items, etc.).
How to check Use all the possible means to split large blocks of text, form controls, and links into smaller groups. For example, use OPTGROUP to group OPTION elements inside a SELECT; group form controls with FIELDSET and LEGEND; use nested lists where appropriate; use headings to structure documents, etc.
Issue Explanation The reading pattern on the computer screen is very different than on paper due to the difference in the physical properties of those two supports, and the difference in the two tasks for the user. When a person reads a web page from a computer screen, the page is actually scanned to determine its overall structure and sections of content. Titles, headings, bold faced text, underlined links, or indented items quickly catch the user's attention.

Large blocks of text are read only after this scanning process ends, and only if something in it has caught the user's interest.

In addition, assistive technologies often provide the means to automatically group information and render this information separately. For example, they render one frame at the time; they allow the user to jump to a certain section (marked up with a header H1, H2, ...); they render a hotspot (i.e. image map) as a group, etc. In this way, a user of assistive technologies can take advantage of this division into groups of content or navigation items.