Drawing a signature and 2.1.1 Keyboard checkpoint

[AccessibilityEnthusiastic]

Hello team,

I am wondering if drawing a signature is a failure of WCAG 2.1.1 Keyboard

Is it required to be accessible by keyboard?

As per WCAG example 1:

Example 1: A drawing Program.

A drawing program allows users to create, size, position and rotate objects from the keyboard
https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Understanding/keyboard.html#examples

so can we consider it as a failure of 2.1.1?
If yes then is there any suggestion to make the signature editing accessible by keyboard? Please suggest!!

[bruce-usab]

@AccessibilityEnthusiastic – I am trying a new (to me) feature with moving your question from issues to discussions, as I do not think you are requesting a change to WCAG or Understanding et al.

Since the context is a signature, i.e. handwriting, I think the note is applicable:

This exception relates to the underlying function, not the input technique. For example, if using handwriting to enter text, the input technique (handwriting) requires path-dependent input but the underlying function (text input) does not.

Unless the web page is performing live signature matching (doubtful) IMHO this sort of thing is an unambiguous failure against 2.1.1.

It used to be more of an issue, but nowadays digital signatures (which can be accessible) have largely replaced asking end-users to pretend a mouse is like a pencil. For forms without that option, for years now, end-users can upload a picture (presumably of their signature) or just type in their name.

[patrickhlauke]

I'll also add that most online solutions like DocuSign and similar offer a basic text entry equivalent (with a choice of pseudo-handwriting fonts) to sign documents (which always makes me wonder what the legal enforceability here would be to prove that it was indeed you who signed it, but that's a separate issue).