Indicating required fields mandatory or not (SC 3.3.2 or 2.4.6)

Hello,

I've looked in the archives but could not really find an answer to my
question, so I will ask it here.

I have always understood that it was mandatory to indicate which form
fields are required and which are not. If I read the understanding document
of SC 3.3.2 it is also listed as a benefit:

"Providing clear and unambiguous labels and instructions (including clear
identification of required fields) can prevent users from making incomplete
or incorrect form submissions, which prevents users from having to navigate
once more through a page/form in order to fix submission errors."

So I was under the impression that it was mandatory to clearly identify
required fields. There is also a technique for this (H90 :
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/html/H90 ).

But there has been some discussion on this in my network. Can anyone
explain to me if it is a MUST or a SHOULD. In other words, can I FAIL SC
3.3.2  (or 2.4.6?) in the following cases or not?

1) There is no visible indication of which form fields are required ; and
some are required and some are not.

2)  There is no visible indication of which form fields are required ; and
all are required (for instance a login form with username and password
fields).

3) There is a visible indication by using a * (asterisk), but there is no
explanation of the meaning of the * (asteriks).

4)  There is no visible indication of which form fields are required ; and
some are required and some are not. But after submitting the form there is
a message at each required input field saying that the field is required.

If it would not be a failure for 3.3.2 could it then be a failure for 2.4.6
or not?

Kind regards,

Gerard Copinga


Cardan Technobility
TalentSquare 13
5038 LX Tilburg
Tel.: +31 (0) 88 500 4070
E-mail: gerard@technobility.nl
WWW: www.technobility.nl
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