Creating Accessible Forms: Overview
WAC Workshop. November 2004.
Written and Presented by: Lori Bailey.
Covers: OSU Standards and electronic forms, distributing forms, screen readers and forms, elements of accessible form design, form layout, inserting and marking-up form elements, processing forms and error messages.
Forms and the OSU Minimum Web Accessibility Standards
MWAS #14 When electronic forms are designed to be completed online, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
The language of the MWAS covering forms could be considered unclear or offering little guidance to the form designer. It is clear that forms must be compatible with "assistive technology." But how functional is "functionality required"? And which "assistive technology"?
There is good reason, however, for this vague language. Electronic forms can be created in a myriad of ways PDF forms, HTML forms, script-based forms, database-driven forms. Some forms use server-side processing like ColdFusion or PHP, while others rely on client-side scripts, like JavaScript. Because the Standards Committee could not predict or adequately cover all the various types of forms, they put the burden on the form designer to properly code and test her forms to insure at least a minimum compatibility with the most popular assistive technology (or with the one most used by her identified user group). When the user population cannot be clearly defined, the WAC tests for compatibility with the most current versions of both JAWS and WYNN screen-reader technologies. Generally, when content is made available to a screen-reader, it will be available to other assistive technology (screen enlargers and focus aids) as well.
Distributing Printed Forms Via the Web.
MWAS 14 only applies to forms "designed to be completed online." Whether submitted via e-mail, processed on the server, or saved to electronic document to share with others, electronically submitted forms must be made accessible to assistive technology users. However, if you are using your web site to distribute paper copies of your forms (less the cost of printing them) and fully expect that users download/save, print, complete, and submit a paper copy of the form, you do not need to make the form input accessible. However, you need to make enough of the document accessible, so users can identify which form they are downloading and can successfully save and print the file. For forms intended to be printed, whenever possible, it is still a good idea to use a well-organized layout and clean text that can be scanned and read by a text reader.
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