- Success Criterion 3.3.2
- Conformance level A
CAPTCHA Field With No Instructions on What to Do
3.3.2 — Labels or Instructions
Scenario
Setting
A car-rental site's checkout flow
What’s wrong
CAPTCHA/challenge inputs with no instruction on what to do.
Example
Open a car-rental site's checkout flow and this is what you'll see: CAPTCHA/challenge inputs with no instruction on what to do.
Why it matters
Everyone filling forms, especially people with cognitive disabilities and magnifier users. On a car-rental site's checkout flow, that means they lose their progress and have to start over.
How to test
Look at a CAPTCHA/challenge field: if there's no instruction telling the user what to do, it fails.
How to fix
A persistent visible label must be provided, required status must be marked visually AND programmatically (with any symbol explained), and format rules stated before input.
Outcome
With the fix in place on a car-rental site's checkout flow, they complete the form without guessing.
Who is affected
Everyone filling forms, especially people with cognitive disabilities and magnifier users.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
Related scenarios
- Multi-Part Field Like a Phone Number With No Text Label
- Icon-Only Search Field With No Accessible Label
- Placeholder Text Used as the Only Label, Vanishing on Input
- Required Input Format Never Stated Until After an Error
- No Indication of Which Fields on a Form Are Required
- Radio Button Group Missing Its Question or Prompt Text