Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data)
For submissions with legal commitments, financial transactions, or significant changes to user data, the user must be able to reverse the submission, have it checked for errors with a chance to correct, or confirm it explicitly before it takes effect.
What it asks
When a user submits a form that carries legal weight (signing a contract, agreeing to terms), executes a financial transaction (paying, transferring funds, placing an order), or modifies / deletes test or user-controllable data (cancelling a booking, deleting an account, changing test answers), at least one of the following must be true:
- Reversible: the submission can be undone.
- Checked: the submission is validated for errors and the user is offered a chance to correct.
- Confirmed: the user is shown a confirmation screen and explicitly confirms before the action commits.
How to meet it
- For checkout, show an order summary before charging — line items, totals, shipping address, payment method — and require a confirm click.
- For destructive actions, show a confirmation dialog naming the specific item: “Delete order #12345?”
- For account-deletion or data-export flows, require a typed confirmation or a re-authentication step.
- For test or exam submissions, allow the user to review answers before final submit.
- For contracts, show the contract terms above the signature step and let the user navigate back.
- For irreversible actions, lean on confirmation; for reversible ones, an undo toast for a few seconds may be sufficient.
Common failures
- One-click checkout that charges immediately with no review screen.
- “Delete account” buttons that act immediately without a typed-confirmation step.
- Booking cancellation that fires the moment the user clicks “Cancel” with no “are you sure?” interstitial.
- Bank-transfer forms that submit on Enter from the amount field with no review screen.
- Test or quiz platforms that submit when the last question is answered, with no chance to revisit.
Why it matters
This SC exists because the cost of an accidental submission in legal, financial, or data contexts is significant — and that cost falls hardest on users with motor disabilities, tremor, cognitive disabilities, or anyone using assistive tech that may misfire. A screen-reader user who Tabs onto “Confirm purchase” by accident, or a switch user whose scanner fires on the wrong cell, has the same right to a safety net as everyone else.
This is one of the most-litigated SCs in accessibility lawsuits, because the financial harm of failing it is easy to document. Treat confirm screens as a feature, not an inconvenience.