WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.2, Labels or Instructions, is a Level A requirement: labels and instructions are provided. It’s among the most common failures on the web: WebAIM found detectable WCAG failures on 95.9% of the top million home pages, and this criterion covers one of the six failure types they found most often (WebAIM Million, 2026 (opens in a new tab)).
Read the criterion in the W3C Recommendation, WCAG 2.2 (opens in a new tab).
How BearScan checks it
Labels and instructions are provided
Checked automatically: reads the HTML. Severity: high. A field with a name but no format guidance produces avoidable errors, which is the substance of most form-accessibility complaints.
An approximation: Fails a field that is constrained by a pattern attribute while carrying no hint at all: no title, no description and no placeholder to tell the visitor the format the browser will insist on. Email, telephone, URL and date fields take the browser's own format and input method, which is the instruction their type gives, so they are not required to carry more. Whether an instruction that is present is adequate is not judged.
How to fix it. Tell the user what format a value must take before they enter it: state the expected pattern for phone numbers, dates, and reference numbers rather than rejecting the input afterwards.
All WCAG 2.2 criteria · Next: 3.3.3 Error Suggestion
Questions
Is WCAG 3.3.2 required by the ADA?
The ADA doesn't name a technical standard for businesses, but the Justice Department's 2022 guidance points businesses to WCAG, and its 2024 rule for state and local governments adopted WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which includes 3.3.2.
Can an automated tool check WCAG 3.3.2?
Mostly. BearScan checks it automatically (reads the HTML). A clean result still isn't proof every page passes, only the pages scanned.
How do I fix a WCAG 3.3.2 failure?
Tell the user what format a value must take before they enter it: state the expected pattern for phone numbers, dates, and reference numbers rather than rejecting the input afterwards.