Redundant Entry

What it requires

A “process” is a series of required steps that complete one activity. It is bounded by that single activity and does not require persistence across sessions. A process can span domains: a checkout that hands off to a third-party payment provider is still the same process (Source: W3C, Understanding SC 3.3.7 ) .

Who it helps

• People with cognitive disabilities and short-term or working-memory difficulty, who may give up or re-enter information incorrectly when asked to recall it.
• People prone to mental fatigue, for whom each re-recall accelerates exhaustion.
• People with mobility impairments using switch control or voice input, who benefit from less text entry.

How to meet it

Auto-fill fields the user already completed earlier in the same process, or let them select or copy the earlier value. The sufficient technique is G221: providing data from a previous step in a process (Source: W3C Technique G221 ) . Concrete patterns:

• A “billing address same as shipping” checkbox.
• Pre-filling a later step with a value entered earlier (editable, defaulting to the prior value).
• Retaining entered values when a validation error occurs, rather than clearing the form.
• Offering the earlier value in a drop-down or as copyable text on the same page.

The three exceptions

1. Essential. Re-entry is the point of the step, such as a memory or recall check.
2. Security. The value is re-requested to verify it. This is the carve-out that lets you ask a user to confirm a newly created password, which the site cannot otherwise validate.
3. No longer valid. The earlier value has become invalid and must be collected again.

Note the relationship with Accessible Authentication: this criterion does not conflict with letting password managers auto-fill credentials at login. Information provided by a different method, such as a resume upload that supplies the data, does not trigger this criterion.

How to test it

1. Walk through each multi-step process.
2. Identify any information the user is asked to provide that was already entered earlier in the same process.
3. Confirm it is auto-populated or selectable rather than requiring manual re-entry.
4. If manual re-entry is required, verify that one of the three exceptions genuinely applies.

Common questions