Content structure matches visual presentation
What this criterion checks
This criterion maps to 1.3.1 Info and Relationships. A detailed plain-language description is maintained in the WebLens criteria catalogue; the WCAG sub-test breakdown below describes exactly what the agent checks and what it does not.
How it's assessed
WebLens walks each user journey, captures a screenshot at every step, and an agent reasons over that evidence. See the how WebLens works for the full pipeline and the deterministic checks layered in for accessibility.
Sub-test coverage
1.3.1 Info and Relationships is broken into 7 sub-tests. Coverage is honest about where the agent is reliable, where it only partially checks the requirement, and where a human reviewer is still needed.
1 full3 partial3 not covered
- ARIA role hierarchy is correctFull
Our tool validates that elements with ARIA roles have required parent roles and contain required child roles, ensuring the programmatic hierarchy matches the intended structure for assistive technologies.
- Headings are programmatically determinablePartial
Our tool detects paragraph elements styled to look like headings (using bold or large font size) that should use proper heading markup (h1-h6). However, it does not verify that all visual headings use heading elements — it only flags p elements that appear to be misused as headings.
- Lists are programmatically determinablePartial
Our tool checks that list markup is correctly structured: ul/ol elements contain only li elements, li elements are inside ul/ol parents, and definition lists (dl/dt/dd) follow proper hierarchy. However, it does not detect content that visually appears as a list but lacks list markup (e.g., items separated by br tags or manual numbering).
- Table structure is programmatically determinablePartial
Our tool validates data table markup: header-cell associations (td with headers attribute referencing valid cells), that th elements reference actual data cells, that data cells in large tables (3×3 or larger) have associated headers, and that tables use real caption elements instead of colspan-based fake captions. However, it does not detect data visually presented in tabular format using CSS grids or divs instead of table elements.
- Emphasis and semantic meaning are programmatically determinableNot covered
Determining whether visual formatting (bold, color, italics) conveys meaning that is not also available through markup or text requires human judgment. Not automatable.
- Form labels are programmatically associatedNot covered
Form label-to-input associations are not checked by the Axe rules mapped to this test ID. Label-related checks are covered under our 4.1.2 test (accs-tech-accessible_names) via the "label" rule, and under our 3.3.2 test (accs-lbls-input_labels).
- Regions and landmarks are programmatically determinableNot covered
Our Axe rules for this test ID do not check whether visually distinct page regions (header, navigation, main content, footer, sidebar) are identified with appropriate landmark roles or HTML5 sectioning elements. Our 2.4.1 test (accs-keyb-nav_skip) checks for a main landmark or skip link via the bypass rule, but general landmark coverage is not verified.
How reliable it is
This criterion is currently scoring below its expected accuracy range, so confirm each finding before acting on it. See Accuracy & confidence for how the confidence tags are set.