WCAG 1.3.1: Info and Relationships (Paragraphs)

Back to all WCAG criteria

OVERVIEW

Effort:

  • Complexity:Easy
  • Duration:Fast

Important for:

Development

What's it about?

For paragraphs and formatted text (bold or italic), the correct HTML tags must be used.

Example of a paragraph, hat includes a phrase that is marked with the html strong element

How to

Depending on your situation, you can implement one of the following options to meet the criterion. For a deeper dive, please refer to the linked WCAG techniques.

  • Content within paragraphs is correctly marked up

    Visually highlighting text within a paragraph (<p>) is often a sign that this content is important. Therefore, this content must also be marked up with the correct HTML tags. For bold text, you should use <strong>; for italic text, <em>.

    You must also ensure that no artificial blank lines are created. These occur when two soft line breaks are inserted. As a result, the HTML contains two <br> elements instead of creating a new paragraph (<p>).

    Technique(s):

    Illustration showing two boxes with text in paragraphs. The top box has a red X, indicating an incorrect use of two tags for line breaks. The bottom box has a green checkmark, showing the correct use of separate paragraphs for line breaks.

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