Forms and Surveys

Making online surveys accessible is not always as simple as using the correct application. The way a survey is designed is just as important as where it is presented. Readers could have disabilities that may make it hard for them to access or complete it. These tips can help you create surveys that make it easier for everyone to participate in. And all respondents will appreciate a survey that’s easy to understand and easy to navigate.

Form and Survey Tools

Accessibility Guidelines for Cognito

The Cognito system and form output have been approved for accessibility conformance, but there are still some things to keep in mind when designing a web form.

Keep your form simple

Avoid creating multipage forms in Cognito. Most forms do not include repetitive navigation.
However, form authors can optionally create multipage forms with repeated navigational links. These links cannot be skipped, which is an accessibility issue.

Field labels and names

Each field in a form has a corresponding label. Form authors are solely responsible for providing the text for each field label on their form. Visual indication of required fields is limited to an asterisk.

Guidelines for Survey and Form Design

While Cognito and Qualtrics are approved for accessibility conformance, the way you set up your form still matters. Below are some guidelines to keep in mind when creating your forms and surveys in order to keep the final output accessible for all users.

Introduction

• Clearly state what the form or survey is about.
• In a survey, say how many questions there are, or use a progress indicator.
• Allow people to save and return to a survey, especially if it’s long.

Language

• Use clear and simple language. Keep sentences short. Reject jargon.
• Make section categories to organize content.
• Use bulleted lists to break up text.
• Spell out acronyms the first time, e.g., “purchase order (PO).”

Rankings

• When asking readers to rank items, use words rather than numbers as the scale. Too often, people need to repeatedly refer to the legend. It gets confusing for everyone, especially screen reader users.
  • Good example:
    • Question: Rate your coffee
    • Answer: hot, tepid, cold
  • Bad example:
    • Question: Rate your coffee
    • Answer: 1, 2, 3 (1=hot, 2=tepid, 3=cold)

Buttons and Boxes

• Decide how many response options people can select. If only one, use radio buttons. If more than one, use checkboxes.
• Make sure that radio buttons are right next to the label.

Negative Answers

• Avoid posing questions in the negative so that the reader has to answer “yes” to confirm a negative. It’s confusing.
  • Good example: Do you support motherhood and apple pie?
  • Bad example: Are you opposed to freedom of speech?

Multiple Choices

For questions with only a couple of multiple choice answers, a horizontal layout is probably fine.

For questions with many multiple choice answers, a vertical layout is better.

Question. Which dog breed do you like best?

• Akita
• Beagle
• Chihuahua
• Dalmatian
• Poodle
• Rottweiler
• Shiba Inu

Tables

Grids or tables are difficult for screenreader users to navigate. Complex tables with many rows and columns of questions and answers are difficult for anyone.

Rather than formatting questions in tables, separate out the questions. Have readers answer each question individually.

• Good example:
  • Question: Do you like cake? Answer: Yes, No
  • Question: Is your house blue? Answer: Yes, No

• Bad example:
  • Do you like cake?
  • Do you eat salt?
  • Are you tall?
  • Can you read?
  • Is your house blue?
  • Do you drive?
  • Do you swim?
  • Do you speak German?
  • Etc.

Keyboard Controls

• Make sure readers can use the tab key to move between questions and between answers, as with any accessible form. Not everyone can use a mouse.

Images

• If using an image as part of the question or answer, provide a text equivalent (alt attribute, transcript, etc.) so screen reader users can interpret it.

Color and Font

• Provide clear color contrast between the text and background.
• Don’t use color alone to convey meaning, such as a red “stop” button and a green “go” button. Also use text.
• Ensure readers are able to increase the font size themselves.

Confirmation page

• Don’t forget to make sure the completion or thank you page is also accessible.

Test

• Do a dry run of the survey with a variety of readers.
• Ask your IT or Communications departments to test the survey for accessibility.