Is <p> </p> to add spacing in website content bad for accessibility?

Example:

<h3>Title</h3>
<p>Stuff here</p>
… (more paragraphs and stuff)

<p> </p>

<h3>Next Title</h3>
<p>Stuff here</p>

Basically the title. Currently in the middle of accessibility remediation for my workplace’s website. There’s a check on our automated tool for “All p elements are not used as headers.”

Someone mentioned <p> </p> “is more than likely the cause of this issue.”

So if it’s bad for accessibility then what are good alternatives to add spacing in page content? I’m a bit confused on this one.

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 6:51 PM

for accessibility, it should read like an empty paper sheet, because is just a space that doesn't allow the text to break to the next line

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 6:52 PM

considering that the w3 org website suggests using for spacing a word (for stylistic reasons ... don't know why anyone would do that), instead of spaces, i conclude it shouldn't be any different from an empty element (for accessibility)
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/failures/F32.html

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 6:53 PM

it probably isn't semantically correct, and you probably need an heading there instead of a

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 8:49 PM

I feel like it’s more of a styling issue where people want to have a section, add an extra space using after the last paragraph before the next heading. Using <br /> is kinda gross too

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 8:54 PM

use a transparent hr?

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 8:55 PM

it's not great, but much better than an "empty" paragraph

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 9:06 PM

Yeah that can work but if others are doing content creation they’re not really going to be able to do that

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 9:16 PM

that's true

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 9:16 PM

probably will be fine

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 9:16 PM

i recommend actually testing it

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 9:41 PM

Well they can type it in with a WYSIWYG editor but can’t make it transparent without editing the HTML… but maybe if the site CSS was better it would have good spacing between everything

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 9:42 PM

I can do it but that’s more work for me to go back and change all of those to <hr> :thinkinghd:

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 9:57 PM

leave it as-is

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 9:57 PM

it's probably fine

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 9:57 PM

maybe an awkward pause here and there, for a screenreader

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:37 PM

Yeah I think the scanning tool actually does not pick it up like that person said it did, I’m not sure why they’re putting out conflicting information…

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:38 PM

Oh well, I will document and then remember to make my own websites better

Thank you

CChimi Yeah I think the scanning tool actually does not pick it up like that person sai...

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:38 PM

probably a buggy tool

CChimi Oh well, I will document and then remember to make my own websites better 🤣 Tha...

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:38 PM

save the link, it will be useful for you

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:42 PM

It’s not the best tool but it’s a starting point

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:42 PM

But it shouldn’t be our only tool

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:43 PM

you should always have multiple tools to compare results between them all

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:43 PM

not all tools test everything

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:43 PM

And manual testing

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:43 PM

I think this is over everyone’s heads here and I don’t especially feel like being the accessibility encyclopedia for them

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:44 PM

yeah, i know what you mean

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:44 PM

Oh I think the link is talking about spacing between letters and such… let me find an example on our website

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:45 PM

i know it is

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:45 PM

But Drupal randomly injects   anyway just like in the link which is REALLY ANNOYING

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:45 PM

im using it to show that the , from an accessibility standpoint, should be fine

CChimi But Drupal randomly injects   anyway just like in the link which is REALLY ...

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:45 PM

yeah, plenty of old wysiwyg editors do that bullshit

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:49 PM

I understand

ChimiOP•4/8/25, 11:51 PM

It’s not an error per say but a grey area and bad practice to do something like we do

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ἔρως•4/8/25, 11:52 PM

but why's the tool pointing out stuff but doesn't tell you where the stuff is?

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 12:05 AM

Well it tells you which page and what the snippets are (unless it’s something like a review item then it doesn’t tell you anything except the page and says “You must manually review this item to see if the issue exists” or whatever…). My organization has the Chrome Extension blocked that allows you to manually scan pages and (ideally?) see where on the page rather than having to hunt them down, but I guess the extension is hot garbage

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 12:07 AM

So for this particular success criteria of “All p elements are not used as headers”, I have not actually seen the <p> </p> bit and I’m wondering if it will show up under different success criteria… it’s really annoying because the tool just updated a lot of items on their checklist so I have to hunt down where I think something would be under

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 12:08 AM

For that SC I have seen bolded paragraph elements that are not headers or ones that should be, not too hard to figure out…

CChimi So for this particular success criteria of “All p elements are not used as heade...

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ἔρως•4/9/25, 12:11 AM

maybe it's a bug

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 12:19 AM

I’m fairly confident that person who said it’s included under that check doesn’t exactly know, but I’ll have to check later

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 12:20 AM

Also I’m deliberating how much I should care in general because I feel like I’ll be wrung out being depended on as the accessibility encyclopedia for them

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ἔρως•4/9/25, 12:20 AM

if it is detected, according to the example i've sent, it should be a bug

CChimi Also I’m deliberating how much I should care in general because I feel like I’ll...

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ἔρως•4/9/25, 12:21 AM

in my opinion, you should care about it as long as it is your job: everything else reported to the manager for someone who's better equipped to do the accessibility testing

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ἔρως•4/9/25, 12:22 AM

im not saying you're incompetent, but an expert is an expert for a reason

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 1:03 AM

Right like it’s not up to me to get everyone on board and dictate PDF remediation and other department-wide practices. It’s funny because there’s like no experts in this state gov ecosystem so everyone is thinking “uh… how do we comply with this by next April?”

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 1:04 AM

But I have been contemplating taking classes like at Deque University and getting accessibility certifications

CChimi So for this particular success criteria of “All p elements are not used as heade...

ErickO•4/9/25, 1:35 AM

I doubt it's flagging the space

ErickO•4/9/25, 1:35 AM

since it is just a space

ErickO•4/9/25, 1:36 AM

who knows tho, I would say there's 2 criteria they could use to flag it as a p being used as a header

Font size & weight
Length of pararaph

ErickO•4/9/25, 1:38 AM

if you're using deque (axe) then their algo:

Ensures that paragraph elements do not use italic, bold or font size to give the appearance of headings.

ChimiOP•4/9/25, 2:02 AM

lol I wish we had access to axe

Is <p>&nbsp;</p> to add spacing in website content bad for accessibility?

Is <p> </p> to add spacing in website content bad for accessibility?