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Re: WCAG SC1.3.5 (Identify Input Purpose) and UK addresses

for

From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Sep 3, 2023 6:36AM

Good point, my primary argument still stands, the cart was put a dozen
miles before the horse, I don't see any way to satisfy this criterion
currently, meaning it's impossible to be WCAG level AA conformant.
Needless to say I'd be happy to be wrong about this.

On 9/3/23, Steve Green < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> According to the authors of this success criterion, the objective has
> nothing to do with auto-filling forms. It's to allow user agents to reliably
> understand the purpose of each field so they can use that to help people
> with cognitive impairments, such as by displaying icons next to them. I
> don't believe any user agents do that at the moment, but that's not relevant
> to WCAG conformance.
>
> Reverse engineering Google and other autofill features isn't going to work
> because my understanding is that they identify fields by the visible text
> label and they only recognise "autocomplete" values of "on" and "off". They
> don't use the values specified in WCAG.
>
> Steve
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> Birkir R. Gunnarsson
> Sent: Saturday, September 2, 2023 9:58 PM
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] WCAG SC1.3.5 (Identify Input Purpose) and UK
> addresses
>
> The spirit of 1.3.5 is that user software can autofill the address inputs.
> If there is no clear and user agent supported HTML autocomplete value/set of
> values for a UK address, i.e. if the user's software either doesn't
> understand the value or it's applied inconsistently so software may get half
> the fields wrong, then there's limited value in trying to implement it at
> this time.
> If the user extension either doesn't do anything or, worse yet, fills in the
> form wrong, we haven't done the user any favors.
>
> Your best bet would be to test out different values of autocomplete with
> things like Google or other popular extension to see if you can find a set
> of values that work consistently across browsers.
>
> I'm guessing the requirement is meant to encourage or drive support for
> these types of tools. While I like that thought, the biggest drawback is
> that it doesn't go well with the unforgiving nature of WCAG conformance.
>
> On 9/2/23, Steve Green < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>> Can anyone help me understand how to apply WCAG SC1.3.5 (Identify
>> Input
>> Purpose) to UK addresses?
>>
>> We are possibly unusual insofar as our administrative geography is
>> entirely different from that of our postal system.
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_geography_of_the_United_K
>> ingdom
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_post_towns_in_the_United_Kingdom
>>
>> In the description of the "autocomplete" values, WCAG says
>> address-level1 is the broadest administrative level in the address,
>> and that in the UK it is the post town. However, many people never use
>> their post town in their address, and may not even know what it is.
>> Historically, post towns were where the delivery centres were, and may be
>> many miles from where you live.
>>
>> If we follow WCAG and use address-level1 for the post town, which
>> "autocomplete" value do we use for the county? We can't use
>> address-level2 because that's a lower level. And the only higher level
>> is country. And what value do we use for the actual town?
>>
>> Or should we ignore WCAG and use address-level1 for the county,
>> address-level2 for the town and address-level3 for the district, which
>> is what seems to be the sensible approach?
>>
>> The whole thing is so ambiguous that different designers will have
>> undoubtedly come to different decisions, undermining the usefulness of
>> the success criterion. The whole problem stems from WCAG saying that
>> address-level1 is the UK post town. If that could be removed or
>> changed to say it's the county, everything would be resolved.
>>
>> Steve Green
>> Managing Director
>> Test Partners Ltd
>> >> >> archives at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
>> >>
>
>
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> Work hard. Have fun. Make history.
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> > > > > >


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