Find a cat near you | Adopt a cat | Cats Protection

Help and Advice | Expert Cat Care Guides | Cats Protection

Support us | Help us to help cats | Cats Protection

What we do | Helping cats and kittens | Cats Protection

Our Corporate Partners | Cats Protection

Adopt a cat | Find a cat to adopt | Cats Protection

Donate | Help cats and kittens in care | Cats Protection

Adopt Cat FAQs | Cat Rescue Questions | Cats Protection

Annual Review - What We Achieved This Year | Cats Protection

Meet the Trustees - Cats Protection Board of Trustees

To comply with WCAG 2.1, fields must identify what their purpose is _programmatically_. If done correctly,
this allows browsers to help users fill in forms with known information, such as their name and email address.

This is accomplished via the `autocomplete` attribute, which should be set to a 
[supported value](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Attributes/autocomplete) wherever
appropriate, e.g. 

```html
<label for="name">
  First Name
</label>
<input id="name" type="text" autocomplete="given-name">
```

For fields where `autocomplete` is not appropriate, e.g. due to security, or the field not matching the
specification, the specific field should be ignored.

## Methodology

* All fields which could support `autocomplete` (e.g. text fields)
  are checked. Other fields - like dropdown menus - are ignored.
* The [accessible name](https://www.w3.org/TR/accname-1.2/) of each field is considered. In most cases this
  will be the `<label>` for the field.
* If the name matches a known pattern the field 
  must have an appropriate `autocomplete` value specified.
  For example, an `<input>` with type `text` with a label of 
  "First Name" would be expected to have an autocomplete value 
  of `given-name` or similar.

Note that using `autocomplete="on"` is not sufficient to pass this check, a
specific named autocomplete value must be used. See the
[supported values](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Attributes/autocomplete).

## Troubleshooting

If a field is a false positive, check whether the field has an 
appropriate accessible name (i.e. a `<label>` or `aria-label`).

If the label is incorrect, Silktide may assume that the field 
requires `autocomplete` where it does not. You should fix the 
label to avoid this.

Otherwise, you can simply ignore the specific field.

## More information

* [How to use HTML 5.2 attributes](https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/html/H98)

identify-input-purpose

September 2025

August 2025

Cats Protection

	Title / URL	Issues
	Find a cat near you \| Adopt a cat \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat/find-a-cat	2
	Help and Advice \| Expert Cat Care Guides \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/help-and-advice	1
	Support us \| Help us to help cats \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/support-us	1
	What we do \| Helping cats and kittens \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/what-we-do	1
	Our Corporate Partners \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/corporate-partners	1
	Adopt a cat \| Find a cat to adopt \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat	1
	Donate \| Help cats and kittens in care \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/donate	1
	Adopt Cat FAQs \| Cat Rescue Questions \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/adopt-a-cat/adopt-a-cat-faqs	1
	Annual Review - What We Achieved This Year \| Cats Protectionwww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/annual-review	1
	Meet the Trustees - Cats Protection Board of Trusteeswww.cats.org.uk/about-cp/meet-the-trustees	1

Identify the purpose of fields programmatically

Cats Protection

Where this issue has occurred