Re: Does placeholder text pass 3.3.2, does disappearing text pass?

Hi David,
H65 is targetted for situations like a search form  or multi part field like phone#. So title is useful in those situations. A placeholder may be used in addition to convey data format / hint. 
H65 technique should not be revised.
Nowadays some designers like to use the placeholder as a label for every field in a form ... that is a no no. 
There may be a case for flagging it a failure:
Placeholder  attribute should not be used as a replacement for a 
label. Doing so reduces accessibility   ... so says the HTML5 specs
http://www.w3.org/html/wg/drafts/html/master/forms.html#the-placeholder-attribute
For more detailed reasoning also see
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/form-design-placeholders/?utm_source=Alertbox&utm_campaign=a7910512f9-Alertbox_email_05_12_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7f29a2b335-a7910512f9-24119657

Thanks and regards,
Sailesh

--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 6/17/14, David MacDonald <david100@sympatico.ca> wrote:

 Subject: Does placeholder text pass 3.3.2, does disappearing text pass?
 To: "WCAG" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
 Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2014, 7:54 PM
 
 Recently on
 Twitter there has been lot's of discussion regarding
 placeholder text as a label. Some say that since the label
 disappears on input that the author is "hiding"
 the label, and it is a failure of SC 3.3.2.
 
 
 H65 seems to indicate that there may be
 situations where it is ok not to have a visible
 label.
 "The objective of this technique is to use
 the title attribute to label            form
 controls when the visual design cannot accommodate the label
 (for example, if there            is no text on the screen
 that can be identified as a label) or where it might be     
       confusing to display a label. User agents, including
 assistive technology, can speak the              
 title attribute." 
 
 
 Mobile designers are sometimes quite adamant
 about the saved screen real estate, but it is clearly worse
 for cognitive folks, and some low vision, and is strongly
 criticized in usability circles. Let's assume the
 placeholder text reports to the API. Do we need a failure,
 or should it pass? Do we need to revise H65?
 
 Cheers,
 David
 MacDonald 
 
 CanAdapt Solutions
 Inc.
 
 Tel:  613.235.4902
 LinkedIn
 www.Can-Adapt.com
   
 
 
  
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Received on Wednesday, 18 June 2014 00:33:30 UTC