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Re: Mobile Native apps - buttons that use colours and text without any borders.

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From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Jan 23, 2020 7:18AM

Hi Sean, WCAG 2.1 SC 1.4.11 indicates that button borders are not needed to identify controls. It leans on the idea that the text alone is enough to communicate the item is actionable. I personally have concerns with this notion because that assumes a certain level of cognition and also ability to scan and read all text in order to understand a role. Borders, backgrounds, and other indicators and other affordances help people with low vision and cognitive disabilities with cues so they don't have to read through each piece of text trying to figure out if it is actionable or not and doesn't require them to try and mouse over everything or tab to it to find out. While it is possible to apply custom CSS to buttons to in a browser to make all buttons appear actionable this is not always an option such as in mobile browsers and many users won't even know this is an option.

Jonathan