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I am being asked to put checkboxes on a webpage that perform no resolution, in that they simply exist to be checked in the form of a checklist that could be printed. There would be no form submission, no buttons, no popups or collapses, and no actions resulting in the checking of the boxes.

I believe this would be against the grain for UX and potentially against accessibility rules. Are there any rules I can reference in the WCAG guidelines that would back me up?

Bergi
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ivory
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    is the nature of the page explained in the content of the page? as in "here is a check list you can print out" if thats the case i don't think it would be an issue? – RyDog Mar 22 '22 at 03:59
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    you could put the check boxes in a form with all the right mark up and the submit button could print the page instead of submitting the form? – RyDog Mar 22 '22 at 04:01
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    If it's _only_ for printing I would draw my own non-functioning "checkboxes" which would look better than real checkboxes when printed anyway. – Stephen P Mar 25 '22 at 01:02
  • So the primary action of the form is to print it? Why do you use “could”? Is it made clear that this is the purpose of the page, by the submit-button’s label? If it is, I don’t believe there is an issue. – Andy Apr 07 '22 at 14:38

2 Answers2

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A couple of things to consider:

  1. If the checkboxes perform a function in that they allow the user to check off which items are completed, then they are there for a reason but it's a question of whether their purpose has been clearly communicated.

  2. From what you describe, non-accessibility users would be getting the same non-functioning checkboxes that accessibility users get, so accessibility is less of a consideration here than UX design. Accessibility is concerned with providing an equivalent user experience and conveying the same information for assistive technology users as for non-AT users, so quoting a WCAG guideline won't really help if the design problem affects both AT and non-AT users.

With that in mind, the WCAG guideline that seems most relevant to me is 1.3.1 - Info and relationships. This guideline deals with preserving the relationship between page information and the semantic structure or layout of a page, so that the way a page is structured (including the components used) doesn't convey different things to AT and non-AT users.

A common failure of WCAG 1.3.1 would be something like using headings for presentational purposes, but it can apply to any component which has a semantic meaning that is different from the presentational meaning. In your case, using checkboxes as a presentational device could fall under that type of failure. See here: https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/failures/F43

George Chapman
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The situation is a bit unclear. The checkboxes are there to be checked, but there is no action that could result in them being checked. That seems to be a contradiction.

In any case, I believe it causes no accessibility issue to include checkboxes on a web page, regardless of whether they are in a submittable form. There could be good reasons to do so. For example, if there are 10 checkboxes and the instruction tells the user to check no more than 4 of them, a script could enforce that requirement. Whether the purpose is to let the user print the page, or save it as a PDF file, or send a PDF version by email, or think about a topic, checkable checkboxes can be useful, and I know of no basis for an inference that they must be submittable to a server.

Jonathan Pool
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