Re: Show/hide toggle to reveal masked password

Dear Lisa:

What kind of guidance do you think is needed?

My expectation is that any but the most novice screen reader user soon
learns that the "show password" button on most such logins will display
the chars the user is typing.

Furthermore, many environments briefly echo the chars the user types
before replacing them with masking characters, so there's a second point
of validation.

Best,

Janina

Lisa Spirko writes:
> Hello all,
> 
> I have been unable to find information about this on the W3C/WAI site: Password masking (e.g., with asterisks or bullets) and the show/hide toggle that I believe should be used to show the actual password.
> 
> Most password fields use masking characters, and without this toggle, screen readers read the masking characters ("star star star star..."), not the actual characters being typed. This seems to me to be a significant, severe accessibility issue because screen reader users are unable to confirm that the password they're entering is correct. Essentially, this issue renders the entire system inaccessible because the screen reader user cannot even access it. I hope you'll consider adding information about this to the site and guidelines.
> 
> The W3C/WAI pages I have found so far on passwords do not mention this at all, but I'm looking for information to pass along to a development team. Any guidance on this is welcome.
> 
> Thanks,
> Lisa
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-- 

Janina Sajka (she/her/hers)
https://linkedin.com/in/jsajka

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Co-Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures	http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

Received on Monday, 11 July 2022 15:11:31 UTC