Avoid using quotation markup for formatting effects |
WAI / WCAG 1.0 Priority 2 checkpoint 3.7
Issue Description The page contains text that is marked up with BLOCKQUOTE or with Q. If this text is not a quotation, then the HTML code should be changed.
How to check Please check if the text included in the BLOCKQUOTE (or Q) element in the page is indeed a quotation. If not, consider removing the BLOCKQUOTE (or Q) tag and replace it with a DIV (or SPAN) tag associated to a CSS class that specifies the formatting properties would be achieved with BLOCKQUOTE (or Q).
Issue Explanation Misusing these tags (for achieving certain formatting effects) hinders accessibility. When a screen reader or reading browser reads the improperly marked up text, it will use a special voice or pitch to make it clear to the listener that it is a quotation (i.e. a reference to comments made by an outside source).

A listener would be confused if the "quotation" is indeed a part of the content of the page that was simply embedded in BLOCKQUOTE or Q for formatting purposes.