• Success Criterion 3.3.3
  • Conformance level AA

Rejected Input With No Guidance on How to Fix It

3.3.3 — Error Suggestion

Scenario

Setting

A used-car marketplace's listing filter

What’s wrong

Entering an invalid year in the listing filter's "Year" field triggers only a generic "Invalid input" message, with no suggestion of the valid range or expected format.

Example 

<label for="year">Year</label>
<input id="year" value="1890">
<p role="alert">Invalid input.</p>

Why it matters

A buyer who mistypes a year gets no clue the site only lists cars from 1990 onward, so they keep guessing random years.

How to test

Check whether an error message that could safely include a fix (known format, known rules) actually does: absence of any suggestion mechanism at all fails.

How to fix

State the exact valid range whenever the system already knows it.

<label for="year">Year</label>
<input id="year" value="1890" aria-describedby="year-error">
<p id="year-error" role="alert">Enter a year between 1990 and 2026.</p>

Outcome

The buyer types a year inside the valid range and the filtered results load immediately.

Who is affected

People with cognitive disabilities and screen reader users who need a stated valid range rather than trial and error.

Learn more

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