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Number of posts in this thread: 5 (In chronological order)

From: Sofia Celic-Li
Date: Tue, Sep 22 2009 6:45PM
Subject: Prefilled password fields and screen readers
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Hi everyone,

While doing some testing today I noted a JAWS behavior that didn't seem
quite right and I'm wondering if anyone else has noted this with JAWS or
other screen readers.

The form was a simple login form with a user name edit field and a password
edit field. Both fields were pre-filled, with the password field showing
dots instead of text to protect the password. JAWS announced the value in
the user name field but did not indicate the presence of anything inside the
password field. While I am aware that it should not announce the password
itself it seemed incorrect for the screen reader not to announce the
presence of a value even if it was to simply announce "star star star star".
A screen reader user would unnecessarily type in the password.

I also tried this with Firefox's password recall feature on a website since
it will pre-fill the password and the result was the same.

This is the first time I've tested a form with a pre-filled password field
and could not find anything on this topic online. Is this the usual
behavior?

Thanks,
Sofia

From: Randi
Date: Tue, Sep 22 2009 6:55PM
Subject: Re: Prefilled password fields and screen readers
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This is a good question. I am not sure if this has happened with
Voiceover, as I do not use the prefill feature. I know that when I
enter a password, it doesn't indicate that anything is there.
Actually, let me check that as I've never looked before. Ok, yes I
just tried entering a password and then going back to the text edit
box, and it does not indicate that anything was entered. I would
assume this would hold true for prefilled text in Voiceover too. I
have yet to update to Snow Leopard, so I wonder if it has changed in
Voiceover. Good question, I do wonder though, how necessary it would be?

Randi

From: Moore,Michael
Date: Wed, Sep 23 2009 7:15AM
Subject: Re: Prefilled password fields and screen readers
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For all versions of JAWS that I am familiar with, 6.0 and up, this is the expected behavior when you tab into the field. You can determine how many characters have been entered by navigating through the field by character. (left or right arrow keys) JAWS says "star" for each character in the field. I have been told that early versions of JAWS would read the password in the clear, defeating the purpose of a "secret" password. Oddly enough, I have seen this open reading of the user's password in some windows applications including a "secure" flash drive that I tested recently. This is likely due to an error in how the password field was coded in the application.

Mike Moore

From: Rakesh Chowdary Paladugula
Date: Thu, Sep 24 2009 5:05AM
Subject: Re: Prefilled password fields and screen readers
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Yes,
I am using JAWS 10 and found that the screen reader announces ******
in the password field.
If you allow internet explorer to remember the pass word it shows
****** in the field and JAWS read them. However to confirm that the
password is correct you can count the number of characters in your
password and the number of characters in the password field. Both
should be equal . This test may not give perfect results always.

Finally JAWS will read the password characters as ******.
Hope it helps.
Rakesh Paladugula.
Web accessibility consultant
Iridiuminteractive Limited
Hyderabad-India.

From: Sofia Celic-Li
Date: Tue, Sep 29 2009 1:35PM
Subject: Re: Prefilled password fields and screen readers
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Thank you everyone for the input.

It is curious that Rakesh had the asterisks announced. Maybe it's a
difference with the JAWS versions.

Thanks again,
Sofia