Guide to Guideline 2.5 Level 3 Success Criterion 1

Techniques for addressing 2.5 L3 SC1

The following combinations of techniques are deemed to be sufficient by the WCAG Working Group for meeting success criterion 2.5 L3 SC1.

Instructions: Select the situation(s) below that match your content. Beneath it, are the option(s) that are known and documented to be sufficient for that situation. For the technology-specific techniques, see the options for the technology you are using listed immediately below.

Situation A: If a form require text input:

• Providing help link on every delivery unit
• Providing help bubbles
• providing help by an (annoying) assistant in the corner of the delivery unit

Situation B: If a form require text input in expected data format:

• Providing expected data format and example

Situation C: If a form contains options users must select:

• Not using same words or letter combinations to begin each item of the list

Technology-Independent techniques for Guideline 2.5 L3 SC1

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Technology-Specific Techniques for Guideline 2.5 L3 SC1

Technology X Techniques:

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Technology Y Techniques:

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Optional Techniques (advisory) for 2.5 L3 SC1

Although not required for conformance, the following additional techniques should be considered in order to make content more accessible. Not all techniques can be used or would be effective in all situations.

Additional Technology-Independent Techniques

• Providing spell checking for text input if applicable to the language.
• Checking byte of character and auto converting to expected byte for text input if applicable to the language.
  • For example, figures in Japanese can be either a single-byte character or a double-bytes character. If the user input a figure by a double-bytes character in a text field which must be a single-byte character, server-side program can detect the incorrect figure and convert it into the expected format.

Additional Technology-specific Techniques

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Benefits: How 2.5 L3 SC1 helps people with disabilities

• Assistance for text input helps individuals with writing disabilities and people with dyslexia who often have difficulty writing text in forms or other places that need text input.
• Additionally, these kinds of assistance help people who are aging and have same difficulty in text input.

Examples of 2.5 L3 SC1

1. Instrcution and example for text input.

   A job search website provides a form for job seekers to register a personal account. The user is asked for text input on the form and some of the text fields, such as email address, birthday, zip code, telephone number, and so on, require the user to input the data in the expected format. Each text field specify the expected data format and show an example which allows users to input text data without causing input errors.

2. A selection list to reduce errors.

   A Web retailer offers online shopping for customers interested in fly fishing gear. When the user is asked for his/her country, a pulldown list of countries is offered instead of having the user enter the information by typing. To possibly make things easier, the user is informed that countries are listed in standard order of the language such as alphabetical order.

3. Spell checking in feedback forms.

   A banking Web site provides a form for customers to submit questions or suggestions. The form user interface includes an optional spell-checking feature for the text input area where the question or suggestion is entered since the language used on the web site can be spell-checked.

Related resources

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