input placeholders are too dark in v3.2.0

[juodumas]

#13847 changed @gray-light from #999 to #777. This change darkened input placeholder colors, so that now it is difficult to discern pre-populated values from placeholders.

This is how it looks with v3.2.0: http://jsbin.com/lohahole
This is how it looked with v3.1.1: http://jsbin.com/funecuyu
While I prefer at least #A9A9A9, as in Chrome: http://jsbin.com/kafimaya

[zacechola]

This is an interesting a11y question. Confusion between inactive and active text has been discussed by the Firefox team (summarized here), but the placeholder text fails minimum color contrast ratio. Which is the more important case? Firefox seemed to defer to the OS vendors on this one.

Perhaps someone from the accessibility plugin team could weigh in. My gut says it'd be safe to go with a lighter color here. The purpose of a placeholder isn't meant to be a label. Maybe @mpnkhan over at the accessibility plugin has thoughts on this.

[mdo]

Makes sense—we should roll it back to #999 at least.

[mpnkhan]

Why don't we leave it to browser default as stated in that Firefox ticket? Sometimes placeholder attributes are incorrectly used as label and sometimes to replace tooltip text.

[goodwitch]

We have this same question at Deque. I've formally submitted this question with WCAG Chair at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-comments-wcag20/2014Jul/0006.html At the moment, my team is calling a violation on place holder text that doesn't meet 4.5 to 1 contrast...because we do not consider it inactive (like an inactive button). But I do see the quandary of not being able to tell the difference between placeholder text and fields that are already completed.