Re: Inactive buttons, contrast and accessibility

Ginger,

My question for you: why do you (or does anyone) think that “something needs to be done” with the submit button?

To me, that just adds unnecessary complexity to what ought to be a standard, simple and straightforward form completion and submission process:

1. User fills out form fields
2. User submits form
3. Form is validated. If there are errors, errors are reported to the user. If not form, is submitted successfully.

Some might prefer reporting the errors client-side before the form is submitted.

In either case, there is no need to do anything with the submit button. All that does is raise questions about appearance, color contrast, tab order, … all of which are unnecessary.

I don’t know whether this was a designer request or a developer decision, but either way, it’s creating a problem where none exists.

My .02

- Peter

> On Apr 24, 2024, at 2:52 AM, Ginger Claassen <ginger.claassen@gmx.de> wrote:
> 
> Good Morning everybody,
> 
> 
> We have a rather difficult issue in a web portal.
> 
> There is a login form and the question is now what to do about the
> submit button if one of the fields user name or password has not been
> filled.
> 
> Do we make the button inactive i.e. contrast does not meet WCAG and
> remove it from tab-order or do we keep it in tab-order and provide a
> tool tip why it is inactive and what to do about the contrast in the
> latter case?
> 
> Sighted users would think the button is an interactive element if we
> fulfill contrast requirements.
> 
> 
> I am looking forward for some helpful input here!
> 
> 
> Thanks and solong
> 
> 
>     Ginger
> 
> 



--
Peter Weil
Web Developer
University Marketing Web Services
Office of Strategic Communications
University of Wisconsin–Madison
608-220-3089

Received on Thursday, 25 April 2024 13:05:35 UTC