“Forms are the bane of my life. They shouldn’t have to be, but they are.”
Forms create layers of accessibility problems, from causing or increasing anxiety, to overloading cognitive capacity, to using more energy than anticipated when the questions keep appearing on every new screen, to putting you into a cycle of stress when you are unable to complete them but must.
Rebecca Markwick, information security professional
About Our Blog Series
Welcome to the second in our monthly series of blogs looking at the support that would enable people with accessibility needs to use everyday services with as little disruption to their lives as others do (or at least, as little disruption as possible).
Each entry in this series has been written by someone with lived experience of a particular support need.
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With that, here is our third post, from Rebecca Markwick
The Hidden Difficulty of Forms
There are a lot of forms that we have to fill out in our life. And unfortunately for some, there are even more forms that have to be filled out. Whether that’s due to job applications, medical journeys, travel, business, taxes, or just joining clubs and local society groups, forms are everywhere.
There are hidden difficulties to forms however, that can make them almost impossible to complete for some people. I’ll go over a few of the main accessibility issues that give me the most trouble and cause the most stress and anxiety. But first, it’s important to note that there are two types of forms: physical forms that are printed on paper, and digital forms that you complete on the computer. The latter generally cause most difficulty, but the paper ones tend to be for more important things so the difficulty is assigned differently in certain aspects.
First up, we have the worst aspect of forms: poorly written questions. Those vague questions that you know are looking for a super accurate response that don’t come with a handy example or more information section. This causes anxiety in not knowing how to answer, what to answer, how much or how little detail should be included, how important this question is, or what the point of the question even is. They are usually found in the middle of a form so you are already stressed and tired from filling out the previous questions. These forms are the ones where it’s clear no-one has checked the question set for user experience or accessibility. This make me annoyed as well as anxious and tired; the cognitive load required to ‘get the answer right’ can be huge.
Next we have online forms that don’t say how many pages or questions there are up front. They don’t say how long they anticipate it will take you to fill out either, or whether you can save and come back later or not. The worst examples of these are the forms that not only don’t show progress status, but suddenly ask you to supply additional documentation that they didn’t warn you about at the start and also don’t let you save your progress. This means that if the additional documentation is a surprise and you don’t have it to hand, you have wasted all the effort taken in filling out the form so far. This is a horrifying realisation as it becomes clear you will have to redo the questions you’ve spent time working through already and find the documentation. Plus, there may be more documentation you need on the next page but you just don’t know. This, to my mind, is very poor form design that has once again skipped user experience and accessibility checks.
Weirdly, there is one form that is practically perfect in not doing this. And that is a high stakes, high stress form that you need to complete to renew a shotgun or firearms license. The first page tells you exactly what documentation you need to attach and in what format, it tells you what order everything is laid out, it gives you exact file size requirements. It lays out every single piece of information you will be asked to fill out and supply and then gives a rough estimate of how long it takes to fill out. Bonus points for also including a guidance page if you need extra help. If every online form was like this it would be amazing. The only downside is that you can’t save it as it must be completed in one go, but it tells you that up front too.
On the paper form side, the additional burden of importance comes in as these are generally only used for things like driving licenses, medical things, passports, and other serious information gathering purposes. When in the situation of filling these out, the questions are often very specific and can be confusing which leads to additional cognitive load. If you fill these out incorrectly it actively inhibits your ability to get access to what you need and often means you have to pay again to submit a fresh form. There are many many questions across multiple pages. The space to write can be small and cramped. Many of those questions may not even be relevant to you, but it’s hard to know in some cases. The guidance that comes with them is also complex and not written very accessibly.
But overall, my biggest concern with filling out forms is that the amount of energy required, the unnecessary complexity or poorly written questions, and the anxiety induced, which can mean those of us with accessibility needs that are struck by ‘filling out forms’ may not ever fill out the form.
Not filling out the form can cause all sorts of issues, from the smaller not joining that club you wanted, all the way to not being able to move your pension money or get a new passport. Some forms being filled out badly can lead to fines, such as the self employed tax return online form system which gets more complex and has more questions added every year.
Forms create layers of accessibility problems, from causing or increasing anxiety, to overloading cognitive capacity, to using more energy than anticipated when the questions keep appearing on every new screen, to putting you into a cycle of stress when you are unable to complete them but must.
There are things form builders can do to make them more accessible. Get a user experience expert to review, get an accessibility review, write a list of all the documents needed up front before even having to start the form. Check that your questions are clear and that you show a progress monitor on forms that require you to click ‘next’. Add useful guidance for complex questions.
Forms are the bane of my life. They shouldn’t have to be, but they are.
Support needs covered in this piece
If you need me to provide documentation during a process, please let me know in advance.
I need more time to complete and return paper based forms.
Key elements of Accessible Design covered in this piece
When creating an online journey, tell people how for through the journey they are at a given moment.
Tell people at the start how long they should expect the journey to take.
Ask questions to which there is a clear answer.
Ensure online forms have a “save and return later” function.
Give clear guidance in an accessible format in the “more information” section.
When creating paper-based forms, leave people sufficient room to write their answers.
About Rebecca
Rebecca works in information security in the Biotech area and has a passion for making security as low friction and accessible.as possible. She is a keen advocate for disability and diversity in technology and information security, and a passionate writer, speaker, and podcaster.
Rebecca is a rider, reader, knitter, crocheter, and collector of cats named after characters in Tolkien.
You can find out more about Rebecca and her work at InfoBex.
Useful links
FIDO Alliance (building secure, password-free authentication)
What We Need 