36 CFR Part 1194 - Proposed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards and Guidelines NPRM - Preamble

502.3.5 Hierarchical Relationships (Section-by-Section Analysis)

This section proposes that any hierarchical (parent-child) relationship between components be programmatically exposed to assistive technology. This is important for individuals who use assistive technology so they can understand the relationships or interdependencies between menu options, database entries, or other software elements that have parent-child relationships. For example, word processing and email software commonly use one or more sub-menus that cascade from a “main” menu item, which permit the user to perform desired actions such as saving a file in a specific format or altering font styles. Requiring components to expose (i.e., provide) hierarchical relationships to assistive technology ensures that an individual using a screen reader, for example, could understand these relationships and, thereby, perform the desired function or action. This provision corresponds to existing 508 Standards §§ 1194.21(l) and 1194.22(n). In addition, in response to existing 508 Standards § 1194.21(d), current industry practice is to ensure that any parent-child relationship that components have to other components is programmatically exposed to assistive technology. This requirement closely parallels Success Criterion 1.3.1 in WCAG 2.0, but has greater specificity because software is more structured than Web content.