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Re: WCAG 3.3.2 vs 3.3.3

for

From: Patrick H. Lauke
Date: Jul 13, 2022 9:35AM

On 13/07/2022 15:57, allyssa jessicon wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> I have had a hard time understanding the difference between WCAG 3.3.2 and
> 3.3.3

Naive answer: 3.3.2 is about labels or instructions, 3.3.3 about error
messages?

Basic example of missing label:

<input type="text" name="username">

without any visible label that gives the user a hint that you're
expecting them to enter their username there, it fails 3.3.2 Labels or
Instructions. that part has nothing to do with 3.3.3 Error Suggestion
(no error has occurred yet here)

Basic example of missing instruction:

Say you have something like

<label for="foo">Choose a password</label>
<input type="password" id="foo" name="password">

but you also require this password to have specific characteristics
("only A-Z, numbers, underscores, at least one number, etc"), and you
don't tell the user anywhere about this, then that would fail 3.3.2
Labels of Instructions for not having an actual instruction. Now, you
may think "but if I then show it once they try to submit and fail, do I
pass?", then I'd say the answer is no. At that point, it's too late /
the user has already had to do one submission/roundtrip to discover
after the fact that there were specific instructions/requirements...

Basic example of missing error suggestion:

Say the user submits something in a form, it's an error for some reason,
but you don't show/explain explicitly what the error actually is (only
something generic a la "this is wrong, try again" with no further
info)...then that would fail 3.3.3

Of course, there *can* be a bit of an overlap between these two SCs. For
instance, if you have clear labels and instructions, the error message
you show after a failed submission can probably be a bit more terse if
it's just a case of "you didn't follow the required format which we've
already outlined over there in the instructions".

P
--
Patrick H. Lauke

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