What WCAG rules fails if Screen Reader focus is going on hidden text which is either incorrect or redundant when user is navigating in scan/browser mode

[rahulpundir019]

I found a issue where Screen Reader focus is going on hidden text which is either incorrect or redundant when user is navigating in scan/browser mode.

When I am trying to map this issue in WCAG, I am not able to find any appropriate guideline.

Closest guidelines are Meaningful Sequence, Name role value and Info & Relationships but need second opinion?

[GreggVan]

I think that it should be part of 1.3.1 and say that everything visible needs to be programmatically accessible, and everything that is not visible, should not be programmatically accessible, or should be marked clearly as non-visual at this time. But I really think it should be not programmatically accessible at all. Otherwise, a page that uses expanding paragraphs would be very usable by someone with vision, but unusable by someone who was using a screen reader because it would read everything not just the expanded topics which could mean a 200 or 300 page document with collapsing paragraphs would be one or two pages for someone who sees but two or 300 pages for someone using a screen reader. We don't say this explicitly, but we should either put it as a note or put it in understanding as this. And in. WCAG3 we need something specific.

[SaraSoueidan]

Wouldn't that mean that all visually-hidden text would fail the SC—including purposeful visually-hidden text?

[mraccess77]

In many situations hidden text that is available to screen readers could fail SC 1.3.1. However, there are some situations where this is useful and likely would not fail SC 1.3.1 in my opinion if there is a valid use.

Regarding programmatic access discussion raised by Gregg. It's not uncommon to have truncation with large text on mobile or with cards that have a ... and expand. In these situations it can be beneficial to have the screen reader speak the full control label or the extra few words on the card without requiring the user to expand the card. Part of the challenge with truncated cards is that when the card text is expanded it's not really possible to set screen reader focus to the new first word that appeared and so it's difficult for screen reader users to find where they left off.

Another example, is partial text which gives you a visual clue that more content is to the left or right - this text may need some marking like aria-hidden to communicate it's not meant for active use - but it may still be useful to have it available programmatically for people who want to use point text to speech such as what comes with magnification software.