Accessibility in Forms
The Basics
- All fields should have a label that is clear
- Search and Filter labels must be set, even when invisible
- Placeholders are helpful, however fields should be preferred
- Browsers / screen readers are slowly adapting to use placeholder content if labels are not set, however labels are still a more sure-fire way of keeping fields accessible
- All fields should use autocomplete where possible
- Dynamically showing / hiding fields as a user fills out a form is preferred, as this reduces cognitive load for a user—thus making it more accessible.
- For example, if a question asks for a user’s gender and they select “Male,” they shouldn’t also need to answer female-specific health questions.
reCAPTCHA v3 and Forms
Gravity Forms issues a notice whenever the reCAPTCHA v2 field is used that says the field has accessibility issues. You can read the full write up here, and as a rule Google reCAPTCHA v3 should always be used.
Further Learning
At FormFest 2023, an online conference about government work and forms by Code for America, there was a breakout session on form accessibility improvements. It is worth the watch, especially at 32 minutes in, where can you watch an actual walkthrough of a user interacting with a form via screen reader technology.