How do you ensure your web forms are accessible to screen readers?

1 Why web forms matter

Web forms are essential for many online tasks, such as registering, logging in, shopping, booking, commenting, and contacting. They allow you to collect information, feedback, and preferences from your users, and to provide them with services, products, or content. However, web forms can also pose many challenges and barriers for people with disabilities, who may rely on assistive technologies, such as screen readers, keyboards, or voice commands, to fill them out. If your web forms are not accessible, you may lose potential customers, users, or subscribers, and expose yourself to legal risks or reputation damage.

2 How to structure your web forms

Structuring your web forms properly with semantic HTML elements and attributes is the first step to making them accessible. This helps screen readers and other assistive technologies to understand the purpose and meaning of your web form elements, such as labels, inputs, buttons, and errors. To do this, you should use the <form> tag to wrap your web form elements and provide an action and a method attribute to specify where and how to submit the data. Additionally, use the <label> tag to associate each input with a descriptive text and link them with the for and id attributes. This will help screen readers to announce the label when the user focuses on the input. Furthermore, you can use the <fieldset> and <legend> tags to group related inputs and provide a title for the group. This will help screen readers to announce the context and structure of the web form. Additionally, use the appropriate input type and name attributes to indicate the type and name of the data you expect from the user, such as text, email, password, checkbox, radio, or submit. Finally, you can use placeholder, title, and aria-describedby attributes to provide additional guidance, hints or instructions for users. However, do not rely on them as your only source of information as they may not be visible or accessible for all users.

4 How to add functionality to your web forms

The third step to make your web forms accessible is to add functionality with JavaScript and ensure that they are dynamic, interactive, and accessible. This will enable users with motor or cognitive impairments, or those who prefer keyboard or voice input, to complete and submit your web form with ease and confidence. To do this, you should use the onsubmit event handler to validate your web form data before sending it to the server and use the preventDefault() method to prevent the default behavior of the submit button. Additionally, you can use the focus() and blur() methods to set or remove the focus from a web form element, as well as the tabindex attribute to control the order of focusable elements. Furthermore, utilize the aria-live, aria-invalid, and aria-required attributes to communicate changes, errors, and requirements in your web form elements to screen readers and other assistive technologies. This will help you provide real-time and relevant feedback to the user.