About Accessibility and Webforms

The Role of Accessibility in Form.io

Forms necessarily require a degree of end-user interaction, which highlights the need to make that interaction accessible. Applications that require compliance with various accessibility standards and guidelines must be thoughtful about the design of the forms and the way those forms are presented within the application. Simply using form components rated to be compliant with accessibility standards does not ensure that the whole form is compliant. Additionally, an accessible form does not necessarily mean that the broader application is accessible. Application developers must evaluate the finished product holistically to determine the level of accessibility.

Form.io offers a variety of tools and best practices through the entire platform to support developers in implementing accessible applications.

Accessibility Standards and Form.io

There are many standards used to evaluate the accessibility of an application. One of the most common standards is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The current standard is WCAG 2.1.

WCAG 2.1 evaluates web accessibility based on several principles. When a Form.io component is described as being WCAG 2.1 compliant it means that component, when used according to best practices, will not interfere with a web application's WCAG 2.1 rating.

Additionally, the United States General Service Administration developed the US Web Design System (USWDS), a collection of standardized UI components and visual styles, to provide developers with a number of resources to aid in delivering accessible web applications and services. Form.io offers a USWDS template that renders forms using markup and classes that are compatible with USWDS standards.