First time visit: View without clicking anything

Find People – Resources

News - Western Oregon University

Academics – Learn more about the WOU's colleges: College of Education and Liberal Arts and Sciences along with our Graduate School.

Current Students | Western Oregon University

Western Oregon University | Oregon’s Oldest Public University

Position Openings – Human Resources

Apply | Western Oregon University

Office of the President – Get to Know the University President

Estimated Cost of Attendance – Financial Aid

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

July 2025

June 2025

Western Oregon University

	Title / URL	Issues
	First time visit: View without clicking anythingwou.edu/	10
	Find People – Resourceswou.edu/resources/find-people/	7
	News - Western Oregon Universitywou.edu/news/	5
	Academics – Learn more about the WOU's colleges: College of Education and Liberal Arts and Sciences along with our Graduate School.wou.edu/academics/	5
	Current Students \| Western Oregon Universitywou.edu/current-students/	5
	Western Oregon University \| Oregon’s Oldest Public Universitywou.edu/	5
	Position Openings – Human Resourceswou.edu/hr/employment/jobs/	5
	Apply \| Western Oregon Universitywou.edu/admission/apply/	5
	Office of the President – Get to Know the University Presidentwou.edu/president/	5
	Estimated Cost of Attendance – Financial Aidwou.edu/finaid/tuition-fees/cost-of-attendance/	5

Identify the purpose of fields programmatically

Western Oregon University

Where this issue has occurred