by Lindsay Nash | Oct 5, 2023 | Article
Filling out an application or reporting form might seem like the most straightforward part of the grantee’s process during a grant cycle. It’s a matter of submitting the relevant information, right? But, this isn’t the case for everyone–especially those with disabilities.
A form can present a frustrating and challenging experience for people with disabilities. The form might not be screen reader-friendly, for example. Or, it might have unclear instructions or confusing layouts. The colours might be hard to distinguish, making call-to-action buttons and menu items hard to see.
Without proper accessibility, you could potentially bar a deserving applicant from your program. And that’s why it’s vital to build an accessible form from the start.
At Good Grants, we think everyone should be able to access beautiful software and so accessibility is at the core of what we create. Our software is designed to be accessible to everyone. But, there are some still steps to consider when building your forms.
Let’s go over some best practices to ensure your grant or funding opportunity is accessible to all.
This is important because it sets the tone for all of your users with your program—whether they are applicants, grantees, program sponsors or partners, program managers or others. Good, reliable software can save a lot of time and frustration down the road so it’s important to use a grant management system from the start that is compliant with accessibility standards.
Good Grants is designed, tested and maintained with accessibility in mind, from colour contrast and video captions to keyboard navigation. Our software complies with WCAG 2.1 AA Standards, Revised Section 508 Standards and EN 301 549 Accessibility requirements.
If you are shopping for grants management software, it’s crucial to consider accessibility. Not sure what to look for?
Here are some questions you can ask any potential software vendor about accessibility:
By choosing a grant management system with proven accessibility features, your grant or funding opportunity will be accessible and flexible to all of your users from the start.
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Once it’s time to start building your application or other form, it’s a good idea to consider the logic required for accessibility.
This means your forms should be intuitive—for all users. Accessible forms are straightforward and easy for users to understand, complete, and, most importantly, submit.
Here are some steps to take when building logic and ease of use into your forms:
To create a clear submission process, it’s helpful to provide clear instructions for the form. This could mean providing grant cycle dates, expectations and other pertinent information at the top of your form. Consider multiple formats for this information, including videos and images in addition to any written instructions. If you provide videos, include captions and a transcript to make them accessible for all users.
Provide cues and instructions along the way for your applicants and form submitters.
In Good Grants, you can provide both help text and hint text to assist your users as they go through the form. This could mean providing sample responses or parameters for the expected response.
Not sure how to see if your form follows a logical navigation order? One way to check the order of items on your page is to try and navigate through your form by pressing the tab key to move through it.
Are you going from element to element in the correct order? If so, great! If not, re-order as necessary to add logic. If your form or website uses layout tables to create visual columns, this can create challenges. (Get some help on layout tables from WebAIM.
Keyboard accessibility is one of the most important functions of your form’s accessibility. This is because users with motor disabilities (such as people with tremors or those with little or no use of their hands) won’t use a mouse and sometimes rely on a modified keyboard or other hardware that acts like a keyboard. Blind users also often rely on keyboard navigation.
It’s also possible users without disabilities will use a keyboard for navigation simply out of preference.
There are a couple of potential problems that might arise with keyboard navigation, such as:
Keyboard users will use the tab key to navigate through interactive elements on the page, like links, buttons, fields for inputting text and others. It’s important these focus indicators are clear. While these indicators can look different in various browsers, they usually appear as a border or highlight around the focussed item. These outlines can be hidden in styling by applying outline:0 or outline:none CSS to focusable elements. It’s important NOT to hide these.
Keep in mind that keyboard users must tab through an entire page to navigate it. If the page is too long it can become quite burdensome. To avoid this, you can provide a “skip to main content” link on the page or provide regions or ARIA landmarks (<main>, <nav>, etc.) on the page to aid in faster keyboard navigation.
In Good Grants, it is possible to easily navigate by keyboard alone for users who cannot or do not wish to use a mouse. Focus indicators are clear, and grant managers can build their forms with accessibility in mind through form tabs to break up longer content.
Here is how you can check if your form is keyboard accessible.
Learn more about WCAG 2.1 standards for keyboard accessibility
Screen reader users also navigate web pages using the tab key, and labels are used to read and announce each item on the page to the user.
It’s important to associate form labels with controls. A label describes the function of the form control. For example, this could be “text area” or “checkbox” or “radio button” and usually appears adjacent to the function.
Sighted users make the connection visually, but others cannot. For these users, the <label> element programmatically associates a text label to a form control, creating a connection in the code that doesn’t rely on vision. Then, the screen reader can announce the text label when the user navigates to the form control.
Although labels are announced when form inputs receive keyboard focus, other text between the form controls is usually skipped so it’s important to include any instructions at the beginning of the form.
Good Grants is designed to be easily used with screen readers. Each element is labelled to be recognised by screen reader technology, an accessibility feature ensuring the user can discern its purpose easily without the need for visually-assisted actions or visual prompts. Good Grants follows WCAG 2.1 AA standards for role, state and property names to allow assistive technologies to interpret content.
It’s important to choose your colours and contrast in alignment with WCAG best practices.
In Good Grants, the default theme settings are specifically designed to provide sufficient colour contrast for all program participants. And, you have complete control over the colour scheme.
To check your own branding and colours, you can use an online tool like WebAIM or install a browser plug-in like Accessibility Insights.
Staying compliant with the latest accessibility requirements from WCAG is an important and ongoing task. It’s not a one-and-done practice. It takes continuous upkeep and assessment from your team and your community at large.
If your program works with users with disabilities, ask them to provide feedback on their experience with your program. They might pinpoint areas of improvement that you had not considered.
Seek out training opportunities. For example, at Good Grants, the entire team is required to complete accessibility training through the W3C Introduction to Web Accessibility course.
Different modules from the course are required for different teams but each person can optionally complete the whole course for a certificate. While it is comprehensive training, we allow a generous time frame for completion and all new employees complete it as part of their induction.
By following these best practices above, you can build and manage accessible forms for your grant program. Improved accessibility will sow inclusivity and thoughtfulness into your program, providing all deserving applicants a chance to participate, submit and be successful.
Building accessible forms for grant programs is essential because it ensures that everyone, including people with disabilities, can participate and submit applications without facing unnecessary barriers. Inaccessible forms can exclude deserving applicants from the program.
People with disabilities may face challenges such as forms not being screen reader-friendly, unclear instructions, confusing layouts, and difficulties distinguishing colours. These challenges can make it frustrating and challenging for them to complete forms.
Grant managers can ensure their forms are accessible by starting with accessible grants management software that complies with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.1 AA Standards, Revised Section 508 Standards, and EN 301 549 Accessibility requirements. They can also ask potential software vendors about their accessibility expertise and practices.
Keyboard accessibility is crucial because it allows users with motor disabilities, including blind users, to navigate forms without a mouse. Potential issues include unclear focus indicators and lengthy form pages. Clear focus indicators and skip navigation links can help improve keyboard accessibility.
Grant managers can ensure keyboard accessibility by testing form navigation using the tab key, testing interactive elements with the spacebar, enter key, or arrow keys, ensuring focus indicators are clear, and avoiding content getting pushed offscreen. They can also provide skip navigation links for faster navigation.
To make forms screen reader accessible, associate form labels with controls, provide clear instructions at the beginning of the form, and ensure that elements are labelled correctly. Using elements helps screen readers identify and announce form controls accurately.
Grant managers can evaluate contrast and colour accessibility by using online tools like WebAIM or browser plug-ins like Accessibility Insights to check their branding and colours against WCAG best practices.
The ultimate goal of implementing accessibility best practices is to promote inclusivity and thoughtfulness in grant programs. By ensuring accessibility, all deserving applicants, including those with disabilities, have the opportunity to participate, submit applications, and be successful in the program.
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