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Re: Does 1.3.5 apply if the form you're filling out is not about *you*?

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Jul 12, 2019 1:39AM

On 12/07/2019 01:53, glen walker wrote:
> The SC says, "The purpose of each input field collecting information *about
> the user *can be programmatically determined when..."
>
> Does "about the user" literally mean it must be information about the
> person that is filling out the form?

Yes

> For example, if I'm on my kid's school website and filling out a field trip
> form and I fill in my name, contact number, etc, that's obviously
> information about me. But if I'm also filling out information about my
> child, such as their name, allergies, or whatever, that's not information
> "about the user".
>
> Does that mean the form fields regarding my child do not fall within 1.3.5?

Well it's your child's machine (?) so unless you're logged in as a
different user, i.e. you're using your child's profile/browser, the
"you" that the machine would know about is your child.

Basically ask yourself: who does the user agent (and/or any third party
tool like password manager, e.g. 1Password) think the "user" is.

> If not, why not? Wouldn't the benefits of identifying an input field
> regarding me also be beneficial for input fields not about me? Or would
> that cause confusion? Say there was a birthdate field for me, and there's
> technology that swaps out the birthdate label with an icon of a birthday
> cake. But then there's also a birthdate field for my child. Would it be
> confusing for both fields to have birthday cake icons and that's why the
> success criteria only applies to input fields about me specifically?

Yes, it's about confusion and not being able to disambiguate
programmatically when it's, say, YOUR birthday (where the "you" is "the
user" whose machine/user agent/etc it is) and just a birthday field in
general that is not specifically yours. Also again think about
autocomplete tools in the UA/third party...if both birthday fields were
programmatically identified the same way, they'd offer to
autocomplete/autofill them both with the same birthdate (the one for
"the user").

> Or, if the form I'm filling out is all about my child. No information
> about me. It seems like the input purpose would be beneficial.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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