[Components and pattern standards] Design components or patterns don't align with Design System guidelines. (04.07.1)

General Information

VFS team name

MHV

VFS product name

My HealtheVet

VFS feature name

Secure Messaging

Point of Contact/Reviewers

Brian DeConinck - @briandeconinck - Accessibility

*For more information on how to interpret this ticket, please refer to the Anatomy of a Staging Review issue ticket guidance on Platform Website.

Platform Issue

Design components or patterns don't align with Design System guidelines.

Issue Details

On the /secure-messages/compose interstitial page, the "Continue to start message" element is coded as a link with role="button" and doesn't navigate to another URL. Adding the button role to a link may cause some unusual behavior when using screen readers or voice command software.

Link, screenshot or steps to recreate

As currently coded:

<a class="vads-c-action-link--green vads-u-margin-top--1 link" tabindex="0" role="button" data-testid="continue-button">Continue to start message</a>

VA.gov Experience Standard

Category Number 04, Issue Number 07

Other References

WCAG SC 3.2.4 AA

Platform Recommendation

Not sure what the intention was here, but I would recommend maintaining material honesty and just using a button with the va-button-primary component. That also removes the need for the tabindex that was added to make the link with no href focusable, and makes the code altogether cleaner.

VFS Guidance

Close the ticket when the issue has been resolved or validated by your Product Owner
If your team has additional questions or needs Platform help validating the issue, please comment on the ticket
Some feedback provided may be out of scope for your iteration of the product, however, Platform's OCTO leadership has stated that all identified issues need to be documented and it is still your responsibility to resolve the issue.
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department-of-veterans-affairs / va.gov-team