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Re: Placeholder text contrast

for

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mar 20, 2015 11:46AM

Jesse,

The WCAG group added a note to this effect (http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/visual-audio-contrast-contrast.html) in a recent update to the understanding document, which reads:

Note 3: The minimum contrast success criterion (1.4.3) applies to text in the page, and placeholder text is text in the page. If used, placeholder text needs to provide sufficient contrast.

It is of course a little ironic that usability tests indicate that people think that the field is already completed when the contrast is high enough, since misunderstanding a control as being already filled out can happen when a screen reader user encounters a control with placeholder text.

Have your usability studies found a definite benefit to having placeholder text at all?

AWK