What it means to be human in a world changed by AI

LSE Human Rights

Podcasts

LSE Player - London School of Economics and Political Science

Campus map

Collection highlights

About

CATS

LSE Business Gateway

Contemporary Turkish Studies

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

June 2024

May 2024

The London School of Economics and Political Science

Title / URL	Issues
What it means to be human in a world changed by AIwww.lse.ac.uk/Events/2024/03/202403271830/AI	1
LSE Human Rightswww.lse.ac.uk/sociology/human-rights	1
Podcastswww.lse.ac.uk/ideas/podcasts	1
LSE Player - London School of Economics and Political Sciencewww.lse.ac.uk/lse-player	1
Campus mapwww.lse.ac.uk/lse-information/campus-map	1
Collection highlightswww.lse.ac.uk/library/collection-highlights	1
Aboutwww.lse.ac.uk/library/about	1
CATSwww.lse.ac.uk/CATS	1
LSE Business Gatewaywww.lse.ac.uk/business	1
Contemporary Turkish Studieswww.lse.ac.uk/contemporary-turkish-studies	1

Identify the purpose of fields programmatically

The London School of Economics and Political Science

Where this issue has occurred