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Re: WCAG 4.1.3 - Status Messages

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From: Steve Green
Date: Jul 18, 2023 10:09AM

That's not right, but it's a mistake a lot of people make. SC 4.1.3 only applies if there is a status message. The absence of a status message does not fail this success criterion.

However, it does appear to be a non-conformance of SC 3.3.1 (Error Identification), which says "If an input error is automatically detected, the item that is in error is identified and the error is described to the user in text."

It sounds like the incorrect date format is being detected automatically, so an error message must be displayed. This leads to two more success criteria potentially being relevant.

SC 3.3.3 (Error Suggestion) requires that "If suggestions for correction are known, then the suggestions are provided to the user". Depending on how the date format is being validated, the system may or may not know what needs to be corrected. For instance, regular expressions are sometimes used for validation, but they just give a pass / fail result. However, other validation methods might be able to be more specific.

Once you have added an error message in order to meet SC 3.3.1, SC 4.1.3 will apply if the error message is displayed without the page reloading. However, if the page reloads and contains the blank fields and the error message, this is not a status message so SC 4.1.3 does not apply.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd