You submit a form. An error flashes: “Invalid.” That’s it.
Invalid what? Invalid how? Invalid because you used the wrong format, or invalid because the email is already taken, or invalid because the server had a seizure and forgot what an email even is?
For all the user knows, the system is lying. The form is broken. They’re blocked, with nowhere to go.
That’s where WCAG 3.3.3: Error Suggestion comes in. And its message is simple: tell people how to fix it.
Comments closedBefore I Can Fill It, I Need to Know What You’re Asking
There’s a form I encountered recently that had twelve fields. No labels. Just placeholder text inside each input that disappeared the moment you started typing. If you forgot what a field was asking for, you had to delete everything you’d entered just to see the hint again.
Twelve fields. Zero labels. Infinite frustration.
That’s not a design choice. That’s a barrier. And it’s exactly the kind of thing WCAG 3.3.2: Labels or Instructions exists to dismantle.
Comments closedThis post discusses eating disorders, mental health, adverse medication reactions, and hospitalization. If you’re struggling, please reach out to a healthcare professional. You deserve support.
Three months ago, I published “When Algorithms Forget You’re Human.” I wrote about my wife—recovering from an eating disorder, doing well (over a decade with no lapse), dealing with weight gain from disability changes—and how social media kept serving her GLP-1 ads. Skin removal surgery. Weight loss programs. Sono Bello showed up eleven times after she blocked them.
I wrote about how algorithms don’t respect choices. How Amazon Prime offers no way to mark content as problematic. How AI systems act as yes men. How platforms treat vulnerability as revenue opportunity.
Today is three months to the day since that post.
My wife is in a hospital bed.
Comments closedFinding a job these days is a brutal thing. Artificial intelligence is doing the initial screening and the interviews. There are ghost postings that never lead anywhere. If you do get through, people are facing five, six, sometimes seven rounds of interviews, only to be left hanging, wondering whether there will ever be feedback. Recently I had several colleagues go through this entire process—screening, panels, take-homes, final rounds—only to be rejected and watch the company repost the same opening a week later.
I sat down with a couple of them to talk about their experiences. This is what they had to say. Names have been anonymized.
Comments closedWe’ve all been there. You fill out a form. You hit submit. Nothing happens. Maybe the border turns red. Maybe a little icon winks at you. Maybe your computer hums aggressively. But nobody tells you what went wrong.
You stare at the screen. “Did it fail? Did it work? Am I now married to a stranger?”
Silence is rude. Silence is inaccessible. And silence violates WCAG 3.3.1: Error Identification.
Comments closed
