Accessible (508) HTML Forms

Classification:

Categories:

[x] Accessibility/508

Standard:

HHS web forms must be Section 508 compliant, ensuring that:

• Assistive technology devices will read the form in same order it is meant to be filled in.
• The relationship between the form field and the form title must be clear.
• The form is navigable via the keyboard.
• Forms must be laid out using either Explicit or Implicit Labels .
• The title attribute may be used, in moderation, to associate a form label with a form input.

See examples in the Code Library

Rationale:

The compliant form will provide persons using assistive technologies the ability to interpret information and navigate the form functionality required for the completion and submission of the form. Forms using explicit labels or table layouts will associate the form fields with the titles for users of assistive technology.

The document structure should be used to determine the navigation of the form fields. The use of TabIndex and AccessKeys sometimes present barriers to assistive technologies.  A well defined document structure eliminates the need for AccessKeys and TabIndex attributes.

Requirements:

There are three acceptable methods that may be used when creating HTML forms:

• Use the title attribute to provide identify the input for the form field. See example in Code Library
• Using Explicit Labels:  Explicit labels include the “for” attribute in the “Label” element and the “Id” attribute in the “Input” element. See example in the Code Library
• Using Implicit Labels:  Implicit Labels use tables for form layout, both the title and the form field must be in the same table cell. See example in the Code Library

The document structure should be used to define the navigation of form fields whenever possible.

Related Standards:

Accessibility (Section 508) and Email
Skip Navigation (Accessibility/508)
Use Text for Links
Accessible (508) PDF Forms

Related Guidelines:

N/A

Checklist:

HTML Forms must be Section 508 compliant.