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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en-US" xml:lang="en-US"><head><title>H54: Using the dfn element to identify the defining instance of a word | Techniques for WCAG 2.0 </title><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H54.html" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/2016/W3C-WG-NOTE.css" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="additional.css"/><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="slicenav.css"/><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no"/></head><body class="slices toc-inline"><div id="masthead"><p class="logo"><a href="https://www.w3.org/"><img width="72" height="48" alt="W3C" src="https://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/TR/2016/logos/W3C"/></a></p><p class="collectiontitle"><a href="./">Techniques for WCAG 2.0</a></p></div><div id="skipnav"><p class="skipnav"><a href="#maincontent">Skip to Content (Press Enter)</a></p></div><a name="top"> </a><ul id="navigation"><li><strong><a href="Overview.html#contents" title="Table of Contents">Contents</a></strong></li><li><strong><a href="intro.html" title="Introduction to Techniques for WCAG 2.0"><abbr title="Introduction">Intro</abbr></a></strong></li><li><a title="H53: Using the body of the object element" href="H53.html"><strong>Previous: </strong> Technique H53</a></li><li><a title="H56: Using the dir attribute on an inline element to resolve problems
 with nested directional runs" href="H56.html"><strong>Next: </strong> Technique H56</a></li></ul><div class="navtoc"><p>On this page:</p><ul id="navbar"><li><a href="#H54-disclaimer">Important Information about Techniques</a></li><li><a href="#H54-applicability">Applicability</a></li><li><a href="#H54-description">Description</a></li><li><a href="#H54-examples">Examples</a></li><li><a href="#H54-resources">Resources</a></li><li><a href="#H54-related-techs">Related Techniques</a></li><li><a href="#H54-tests">Tests</a></li></ul></div><div class="skiptarget"><a id="maincontent">-</a></div> <h1><a name="H54" id="H54"> </a>H54: Using the <code>dfn</code> element to identify the defining instance of a word</h1><div id="H54-disclaimer"><h2>Important Information about Techniques</h2><p>See <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/NOTE-UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20-20161007/understanding-techniques.html">Understanding Techniques for WCAG Success Criteria</a> 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.</p></div><div class="applicability"><h2 id="H54-applicability">Applicability</h2><div class="textbody"><p>HTML and XHTML</p></div></div><p class="referenced">This technique relates to:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/#meaning-idioms"> Success Criterion 3.1.3 (Unusual Words)</a><ul><li><a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/20160105/#meaning-idioms"> How to Meet 3.1.3 (Unusual Words) </a></li><li><a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/NOTE-UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20-20161007/meaning-idioms.html"> Understanding Success Criterion 3.1.3 (Unusual Words) </a></li></ul></li></ul><h2 id="H54-description">Description</h2><div class="textbody"><p>The objective of this technique is to use the <code>dfn</code> to mark the use of a word or phrase where it is defined. The <code>dfn</code> element is used to indicate the defining instance of the enclosed term. In other words, it marks the occurrence of the term where the term is defined. Note that it encloses the term, not the definition. This technique would be used in combination with <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20161007/G112" class="tech-ref">G112: Using inline definitions</a> to provide the definition.</p></div><h2 class="small-head" id="H54-examples">Examples</h2><h3 class="small-head" id="H54-ex1">Example 1</h3><div class="example"><div class="textbody"><p>The following code snippet demonstrates the use of the <code>dfn</code> element.</p></div><div class="code"><p><strong>Example Code:</strong></p><pre><code><p>The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines require that non-text content has a text alternative. <dfn>Non-text content</dfn> is content that is not a sequence of characters that can be programmatically determined or where the sequence is not expressing something in human language; this includes ASCII Art (which is a pattern of characters), emoticons, leetspeak (which is character substitution), and images representing text .</p> </code></pre></div></div><h2 id="H54-resources">Resources</h2><div class="textbody"><p>Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.</p><ul><li><p>HTML 4.01 <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/html4/struct/text.html#edef-DFN">DFN Element</a> </p></li></ul></div><h2 id="H54-related-techs">Related Techniques</h2><div class="textbody"><ul><li><a href="G112.html">G112: Using inline definitions</a></li></ul></div><h2 id="H54-tests">Tests</h2><div class="textbody"><h3 class="small-head" id="H54-procedure">Procedure</h3><ol class="enumar"><li><p>Identify all words that are defined inline in the text, that is, where the definition occurs in a sentence near an occurrence of the word. </p></li><li><p>Check that each word that is defined inline is contained in a <code>dfn</code> element. </p></li></ol><h3 class="small-head" id="H54-results">Expected Results</h3><ul><li><p>Check #2 is true.</p></li></ul><p>If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.</p></div><ul id="navigationbottom"><li><strong><a href="#top">Top</a></strong></li><li><strong><a href="Overview.html#contents" title="Table of Contents">Contents</a></strong></li><li><strong><a href="intro.html" title="Introduction to Techniques for WCAG 2.0"><abbr title="Introduction">Intro</abbr></a></strong></li><li><a title="H53: Using the body of the object element" href="H53.html"><strong>Previous: </strong> Technique H53</a></li><li><a title="H56: Using the dir attribute on an inline element to resolve problems
 with nested directional runs" href="H56.html"><strong>Next: </strong> Technique H56</a></li></ul><div class="footer"><p class="copyright">This Web page is part of <a href="Overview.html">Techniques and Failures for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0</a> (see the <a href="https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/H54.html">latest version of this document</a>). The entire document is also available as a <a href="complete.html">single HTML file</a>. See the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20">The WCAG 2.0 Documents</a> for an explanation of how this document fits in with other Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 documents. To send public comments, please follow the <a href="https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/comments/">Instructions for Commenting on WCAG 2.0 Documents</a>. </p><p class="copyright"><a href="https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a> 漏 2016 <a href="https://www.w3.org/"><acronym title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</acronym></a><sup>庐</sup> (<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><acronym title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</acronym></a>, <a href="http://www.ercim.eu/"><acronym title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</acronym></a>, <a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>, <a href="http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/">Beihang</a>). W3C <a href="https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>, <a href="https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a> and <a href="https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document use</a> rules apply.</p></div></body></html>