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Re: Do native HTML date pickers automatically fail SC 1.4.4 (Resize Text)?

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From: Steve Green
Date: May 23, 2024 8:39PM

I am inclined to agree, but I am trying to understand why we think it's not non-conformant, because I feel we should always be able to point to the specific phrases in the success criteria that support our decision.

One argument is that content authors should not be on the hook for the failings of UA controlled widgets, but the SC does not include such an exemption. Other SCs do, and there doesn't appear to be a general exemption that applies to all SCs, unless I'm missing something. The counter-argument is that content authors have the choice not to use these components, so they should be on the hook if they do.

Another possibility is that the SC does not even apply to this type of component because it's not actually text. This argument hinges on the meaning of the phrase "text-based controls", which WCAG describes as "text characters that have been displayed so that they can be seen [vs. text characters that are still in data form such as ASCII])." I think this phrase is intended to exclude native HTML components such as comboboxes and the date picker on the grounds that they contain glyphs, not ASCII characters.

Steve