In plain English
Login screens often quietly exclude people: they demand you remember a password and type it perfectly, or solve a distorted-text CAPTCHA, or complete a puzzle. Those are memory and problem-solving tests, and they are exactly what people with cognitive differences, dyslexia, or memory conditions struggle with. This rule, new in WCAG 2.2, says login must not rely on a test like that, unless there is an easier alternative.
The simplest way to comply: let people use the tools that already help them. Allow paste, allow password managers, allow autofill.
Who this is for
- People with memory or cognitive differences, for whom “remember and retype this” is a wall.
- People with dyslexia, who find CAPTCHAs and exact recall especially hard.
- Everyone, who logs in faster with a password manager.
How to check and fix it yourself
Try logging in with a password manager and by pasting the password. If either is blocked, that is the problem. Remove anything that disables paste, and do not block autofill.
Password field allows paste + autofill ✓
Login offers email-link ("magic link") as an option ✓
Puzzle/text CAPTCHA as the only way in ✗ (add an alternative)Where we can help
Authentication barriers are easy to ship without realizing, a “no paste” rule or a CAPTCHA added for spam can quietly fail this. In an audit we test your login, account, and checkout-as-guest flows and flag anything that blocks supporting tools. It is one of the new WCAG 2.2 criteria and a common item on the failures list.