Overview of Identify Input Purpose

Overview of Identify Input Purpose

Purpose

The web is filled with input forms and fields that can take a long time to fill out. This Success Criterion focuses on improving the recognition of form fields that are commonly filled out. When these fields are identified, they can be more quickly filled out, thus increasing the efficiency for people using web forms across many different sites and applications.

Why It Matters

  • People with language and memory related disabilities or disabilities that affect executive function and decision-making benefit from the browser auto-filling personal information (such as name or address) when the autocomplete attribute is used, which means information does not need to be remembered by the user.
  • People with cerebral palsy, stroke, head injury, motor neuron disease, or a learning disability sometimes prefer images for communication. They can employ assistive technology which adds icons to input fields to communicate the purpose of the fields visually.
  • People with motor impairments also benefit from reducing the need for manual input when filling out forms.

Transcript:

  1. User presses Tab to move keyboard focus to First Name field
  2. User types the letters J,o,h,n
  3. User presses Tab to move keyboard focus to Last Name field
  4. User types the letters D,o,e
  5. User presses Tab to move keyboard focus to Email Address field
  6. User types the letters j,o,h,n,.,d,o,e,@,a,c,m,e,.,o,r,g

Note that the user needed to press 27 keystrokes to input their information correctly.

https://vimeo.com/311497368 Transcript:

  1. User presses Tab to move keyboard focus to First Name field
  2. User types the letter J and the autocomplete popup appears
  3. User presses Down Arrow and then Enter to select the first autocomplete option
  4. The First Name field becomes populated with word John, the Last Name field becomes populated with word Doe, and the Email Address field becomes populated with word john.doe@acme.org

Note that with autocomplete implemented for this form, it only took the user 4 keystrokes to to input their information correctly. Saving a user 23 keystrokes with this functionality will make people more successful in completing the form.

How to Test

Navigate to a input with a label that identifies itself as wanting user information (name, username, password, address, etc.). See if your browser or third party password manager offers to help you complete the form, or if Known input field type missing autocomplete.

Best Practices

When creating a form, review the full list of input controls found in Section 7 of the WCAG 2.1 Recommendation, to correctly expose your inputs.

Exceptions

It’s important to note the success criterion only places requirements on input fields collecting information about the user.

References

Table of contents