See Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria for important information about the usage of these informative techniques and how they relate to the normative WCAG 2.0 success criteria. The Applicability section explains the scope of the technique, and the presence of techniques for a specific technology does not imply that the technology can be used in all situations to create content that meets WCAG 2.0.
All technologies.
This failure relates to:
Many people with cognitive disabilities have a great deal of trouble with blocks of text that are justified (aligned to both the left and the right margins). The spaces between words create "rivers of white" running down the page, which can make the text difficult for some people to read. This failure describes situations where this confusing text layout occurs. The best way to avoid this problem is not to create text layout that is fully justified (aligned to both the left and the right margins).
In the following example of a failure, the HTML align
attribute is used to create justified text.
Example Code:
<p align="justify">Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet pede. Phasellus
nec sem id mauris vehicula tincidunt. Morbi ac arcu. Maecenas vehicula velit et orci. Donec
ullamcorper porttitor velit. Sed arcu lorem, cursus sit amet, auctor eu, convallis ut, purus.
Vivamus imperdiet accumsan nunc. Maecenas pellentesque nunc a libero. Vestibulum ante ipsum
primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Curabitur pharetra commodo
justo. Nulla facilisi. Phasellus nulla lacus, tempor quis, tincidunt ac, rutrum et, mauris.
</p>
In this example of a failure, the CSS text-align
property is used to create justified text.
Example Code:
...
p {text-align: justify}
...
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet pede. Phasellus
nec sem id mauris vehicula tincidunt. Morbi ac arcu. Maecenas vehicula velit et orci. Donec
ullamcorper porttitor velit. Sed arcu lorem, cursus sit amet, auctor eu, convallis ut, purus.
Vivamus imperdiet accumsan nunc. Maecenas pellentesque nunc a libero. Vestibulum ante ipsum
primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Curabitur pharetra commodo
justo. Nulla facilisi. Phasellus nulla lacus, tempor quis, tincidunt ac, rutrum et, mauris.</p>
Open the page in a common browser.
Verify that content is not justified (aligned to both the left and the right margins).
If test procedure #2 is false, then this failure condition applies and the content fails to meet Success Criterion 1.4.8.