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Re: Required Fields and Username / Password on a Website

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From: Srinivasu Chakravarthula
Date: Jul 24, 2012 12:34AM


My take is this:
If you are going to use some additional fields like "Remember me" or "Jump
to:" like we see on some financial related portals like Etrade, it would be
necessary to indicate user name and password are mandatory, since the other
fields would be optional. But If you just have user name and password, I
think, it should not logically require to be indicated.

Thanks,
-Vasu

On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 4:32 AM, Elle < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> All:
>
> We're redesigning our website, and there's discussion about whether any
> indication of required fields is necessary for "username" and password" to
> sign into the member portal. All the Section 508 and WCAG 2.0
> documentation I see seems to state that it's a violation if you don't
> indicate "this field is required" by either an asterisk, an image, text
> (ex. "required"), or grouping like fields together by validation. However,
> the WCAG content seems more for multiple form fields. On the
> Section508.gov website, the Search text input field responds like a
> required field (it has a validation / error prompt if you hit Submit
> without entering text), but there is no indication that Search is a
> required field to successfully Submit. My UX team is telling me that
> Username and Password are obviously required if you want to sign in on a
> website, and that even an asterisk is unnecessary. So, my questions are:
>
>
> 1. Is it necessary (to meet conformance requirements) to have an
> asterisk next to Username and Password for a sign-in widget on a
> website?
> 2. If the guidance text ** Required* exists near the top of the page,
> can we remove it from a similar sign-in widget on the left rail?
>
>
> Thanks very much,
> Elle
> > > >



--
Regards,

Srinivasu Chakravarthula - Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/VasuTweets
Website: http://www.srinivasu.org | http://www.learnaccessibility.org

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