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Re: qr code and guidelines

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From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Sep 12, 2020 7:44AM

On 12/09/2020 14:28, Joe Humbert (A11y) wrote:

> While, I don't think any WCAG SC completely covers this, it could fail
> against 2.4.5 Motion Actuation, since a user has to move the camera into a
> position to read the QR code,

That's not what 2.4.5 mandates though. It's not the motion itself that
the app is detecting, but the feed from the camera. The motion is
coincidental. The camera may be static and a user has to move the QR
code in front of it as well, meaning no motion at all may be required on
the app's side. This (just like "the user has to move their hand to move
the mouse / the user has to move their hand to tap things on a
touchscreen / etc) is all exempt from the SC.

Having a QR code reader per se does not currently directly contravene
any particular WCAG SC - assuming everything else (the button to take
the picture/start the process etc) is accessible. The one aspect that
possibly could fall under 1.1.1 is if the camera view itself is shown on
the screen, together with a targeting reticule / border / similar that
gives an indication - visually - how the QR code needs to be centered.
If this is not conveyed in an alternative/non-visual way, that could be
failure. How that's achieved may be tricky ... some sort of sonar/sound
cue that gives you aural feedback of how close/far you are from having
the QR code properly centered/in view. Also, of course it would then -
as a best practice - be good if the app kept polling the view for
anything that looks like a QR code, rather than expecting the user to
press a "take picture now" type button ... that would at least allow a
low vision/blind user to just point the camera in the general direction
of the QR code, move it around a bit, and rely on the app to grab it
whenever it's sufficiently in view.

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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