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Re: Accessibility and web applications

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From: Weissenberger, Todd M
Date: Apr 2, 2014 12:43PM

Todd,



It seems to me that an interface like this should at least include guidance and instruction to the user, regardless of whether such notice is required.



It might be open to interpretation whether G168 applies, since success criterion 3.3.4 also applies to web pages that "that modify or delete user-controllable<http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/#user-controllabledef>; data in data storage systems". Moreover, Situation B, one of the places where G168 is cited as a sufficient technique, applies "If an action causes information to be deleted." To me, this raises the question of whether uncommitted user inputs are "information" and following a link is an "action"; I'm sure it seems that way when multiple form inputs are reset. At a higher level, Guideline 3.3 simply reads, "Help users avoid and correct mistakes.". At the very least, some kind of message to the user would seem to make sense here.



You didn't mention what platform this is in, but I assume the form is generated server-side and delivered to the user from the database. If that's the case, providing instruction to the user should be a trivial matter.



Todd W.