Does the use of <small> tags cause an accessibility issue?

Issue

• We have verified that Liferay uses the <small> tag in the Type and Category facet search filters and we think that it could lead to an accessibility issue, violating the WCAG 1.3.1 Information & Relationships success criteria.

Environment

• Quarterly Release 2024.q2

Resolution

• The reported accessibility concern regarding the use of the <small> tag within the search filter facets has been reviewed and is not considered an accessibility issue.
• The <small> tag, while presentational and not semantic, is a valid HTML5 tag and its use does not negatively impact accessibility.
• WCAG recommends using CSS for styling and semantic HTML elements. Liferay's implementation adheres to this best practice by using CSS from Clay for styling and not relying on the <small> tag to convey semantic meaning.
• The <small> tag in this context does not violate WCAG 1.3.1 Information & Relationships success criteria, and testing with screen readers, semantic analysis tools (like AXE, WAVE, and Lighthouse) confirms no negative impact on accessibility.

Additional Information

• WCAG 2.2: Understanding Success Criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships)
• https://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_semantic_elements.asp