508-defect-3 [COGNITION]: Introduction page, links should be styled and written as links

[joshkimux]

508-defect-3

Feedback framework

• ❗️ Must for if the feedback must be applied
• ⚠️ Should if the feedback is best practice
• ✔️ Consider for suggestions/enhancements

Definition of done

1. Review and acknowledge feedback.
2. Fix and/or document decisions made.
3. Accessibility specialist will close ticket after reviewing documented decisions / validating fix.

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Point of Contact

VFS Point of Contact: Josh Kim

Details

"Start your application without signing in" is styled as a link but is written as a button which is materially dishonest. Users may become frustrated that they are unable to open a new tab. Screen reader users may be confused that the text seems more like a link despite being announced as a button.

For more on this long-tail effort, check out our buttons vs. links Mural board and this Slack thread discussing why material honesty is so important.

"A few years at an accessibility event, a blind man was telling a story about how he was on the phone with someone who was trying to help him sign up for a service. The person on the phone told him to click the “sign up button” and he couldn’t find it because it was a link. He told the story with a lot more gravity than I can, but that was the point where I realized how important the human-human communication part of accessibility is, it’s not just machine to human." - Tim Wright

Acceptance Criteria

• "Start your application without signing in" is written with an a tag

Environment

• Operating System: all
• Browser: any
• Screenreading device: any
• Server destination: staging

Solution (if known)

Use a instead of button

WCAG or Vendor Guidance (optional)

• Adam Silver: But sometimes buttons look like links
• VA Design System guidance on buttons

Screenshots or Trace Logs

[micahchiang]

@jason-gcio, @joshkimux - This ticket may no longer be relevant to the Chapter 31 form, as we no longer allow users to enter the form without first being logged in.

Additionally, it looks like this may be fixed at the platform level already, based on this code, but perhaps double check with platform folks to confirm.

Edit: Apparently I cannot read. This issue still needs to be fixed at the platform level by probably removing the va-button-link class.

[ohgreatkate]

no longer relevant, the Veteran can not proceed on this form with out logging in, and then button masked as a link has been removed.