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Form submission on mobile devices

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From: Sarah Ward
Date: Feb 12, 2014 4:33AM

Hello fellow WebAIM Mailing-ees,

I am looking for advice for forms on mobile devices, and in particular not having a submit button in the design, and instead relying on the user to use the keyboard to submit the form using the Return/Enter key. My gut instinct is this is a major accessibility concern, not just for low vision users, but for everyone! If the form contains any field other than a text entry, in most cases the keyboard disappears when focus is moved to that field too.

However, we are getting pushback from the business that they do not want a Submit button and they want to keep the UI clean and simple. If anyone has experience or can direct me to a resource that explains why this is a poor experience I would really appreciate it. Do low vision users assume to press Return/Enter key if they can't find a submit button on the view? Unfortunately I am unable to do user testing for this, and without concrete evidence it is getting increasingly difficult to push for a change in the design.

Thanks in advance,
Sarah