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Chris Connelly
Chris Connelly

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Accessibility for the colour blind #3: Forms

Ok.... So this one is a big one for me. I have MAJOR issues seeing forms. Especially when people use white on... a little less white... With light grey text... WTF!??!?!?

Labeling

Using a placeholder without a label is problematic because placeholder text usually lacks sufficient contrast. Apple has this problem with their registration form:

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Using labels works a lot better.

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But even then the border is too light and I personally would have issues seeing that.

Adding a darker / thicker border or even some shadow helps even more.

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Required Fields

The picture below is a perfect example. I cannot tell which one of these if any... or all of them are required...

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Instead try:

  • Marking required fields with an asterisk.

  • Even better, marking required fields with “required.”

  • Where possible, remove optional fields altogether.

In the next article I'll be wrapping up this series with a few more examples and tooling!

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