• Success Criterion 3.3.7
  • Conformance level A

Unnecessary ‘Confirm Email’ Field Duplicated Without Real Need

3.3.7 — Redundant Entry

Scenario

Setting

A hospital's patient portal appointment scheduler

What’s wrong

"Confirm email" style duplicates *are allowed as exception only when essential* — using them for ordinary fields (confirm address, confirm name) fails.

Example 

<label for="reason">Reason for visit</label>
<textarea id="reason"></textarea>
<label for="reason-confirm">Re-type your reason for visit to confirm</label>
<textarea id="reason-confirm"></textarea>
<!-- a confirm-field pattern borrowed from password/email forms applied to a plain text note -->

Why it matters

A patient describing symptoms has to type the same paragraph twice for a field that carries no risk if mistyped, unlike an email address.

How to test

Check for 'confirm email'/'confirm address'-style duplicate fields: these are only allowed where essential — using them for ordinary non-essential fields fails.

How to fix

Drop the confirm-field pattern for anything but genuinely sensitive fields like email or password, where a mismatch has real consequences.

<label for="reason">Reason for visit</label>
<textarea id="reason"></textarea>

Outcome

The patient writes their reason for visit once and moves straight to scheduling.

Who is affected

People with cognitive disabilities and motor impairments for whom retyping a full paragraph a second time is unnecessary effort.

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