WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Placeholder

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Mar 12, 2019 3:17AM

On 12/03/2019 09:01, Isabel Holdsworth wrote:
> From a blind tester's perspective (hope I've got this right Jim):
>
> Say a form element has a label and a placeholder, and the placeholder
> is used to describe the expected data format. If the screenreader
> speaks the placeholder even after it's been superseded by entered
> data, then it's more challenging for a blind tester to know that the
> screenreader is speaking invisible text and that there's a 3.3.2 fail.

3.3.2 is tricky in any case, as it does not necessitate that whatever
text acts as a label/instruction is actually programmatically associated
(so it could just be text that happens to be "near" an input - for
whatever definition of "near" - but has no proper <label for="...">
connection or anything, but under 3.3.2 that's a pass; or the form
control could have explicit aria-label="..." but no actual visible text,
which would fail 3.3.2 even though it passes 4.1.2 and would be tricky
to spot unless a tester using just the screenreader both explores the
overall text of the page - and makes sure they don't land in visually
hidden text - and then compares notes with what they hear when focusing
a form field)...

But yes, this wouldn't help in this already very complex to test (mostly
visual) SC.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke