Purpose of Controls

AGWGer’s,
Yesterday we spent a lot of time on Purpose of Controls and we need to minimize the time spent on this SC because while it is important it isn’t the only important SC.

After the meeting a lot of work went into this SC, and we have an implemented version (two, actually) for people to review and think about.

Things that have changed:

  1.  All listed items have definitions.
  2.  The lists are moved from an appendix to a section of the document, and are to be regarded as normative.
  3.  The term “user interface components” is used more consistently throughout the SC and additional section.
     *   The SC is retitled “Identify Purpose” as the previous “purpose of controls” mixes the User interface Component and “control” language and this seems clearer.
  4.  Within the lists, a few item groupings are collapsed into a single top-level item. Name, Address, and Telephone are examples of this. So if you build a form you need to make sure that the appropriate address field purposes are conveyed, and this helps with internationalization as well as to accommodate for different design decisions (e.g. one form uses “Full Street Address” and another has “address 1, “address 2”, etc – both need the purpose to be properly conveyed).

One item to think about:
A comment was raised at TPAC and since then as well that for the input control purposes we need to focus on the user’s information. So, instead of name inputs controls being about anyone, they are about the user directly. The concern is that if autofill attributes are used to satisfy this that a form with name fields for many people (e.g. HR system, booking a flight for a family) that there will be a lot of inaccurate information potentially automatically added to the form.

If we agree that this is a problem, then we will need to adjust a handful of other input purposes (e.g. address, email, etc.).

So, here’s the latest draft:

  *   With “AT RISK” items from yesterday: http://rawgit.com/w3c/wcag21/purpose_of_controls_changes2/guidelines/index.html#identify-purpose

  *   Without “AT RISK” items from yesterday: http://rawgit.com/w3c/wcag21/purpose_of_controls_changes3/guidelines/index.html#identify-purpose


Thanks,
AWK

Andrew Kirkpatrick
Group Product Manager, Accessibility
Adobe

akirkpat@adobe.com
http://twitter.com/awkawk