Want to know which form builder has the best ADA-compliant forms? We investigate how popular form builders compare on their approach to WCAG.
Approximate read time: 7 minutes
Accessibility on your WordPress website and online forms... is this a priority for you? With all the WordPress themes and plugins available, it can be difficult to know which ones are ADA compliant.
And it's a real drag when you find out your favorite tools aren't as accessible or easy to use as you thought!
If you're shopping around for a new form builder for your website or blog, you may be wondering whether the ones you're considering are accessible. If your goal is to make sure your WordPress site complies with the ADA, read on!
Why is web accessibility important?
Everyone relies on websites, apps, and plugins in their day to day lives, but what is that like for people with disabilities? Those with cognitive disabilities, or hearing and speech difficulties, do not experience websites or online tools in the same way that others do.
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is a law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life. One of the areas often underestimated? Online life. This is where the concept of website accessibility comes into play.
It's important that your WordPress website and any online tools you provide are doing their best to take everyone into account. In our post on Web Form Accessibility and Why You Can't Afford to Ignore it, we go into more detail about accessibility on the web.
In today’s post, we’re going to be discussing ADA standards, WCAG and A11Y in website forms. We will be looking at the top online form builders to determine who has the best ADA-compatible WCAG forms out there.
We’ll compare these form builders:
- Formidable Forms
- WuFoo
- WPForms
- Gravity Forms
- Ninja Forms
- Contact Form 7
- JotForm
While there are dozens of form builders out there, we know these are some of the most popular form builder plugins to use.
How will we evaluate WCAG forms?
We will be using Wave as our web accessibility evaluation tool. Wave looks at WCAG forms and A11Y accessibility to determine where a web page is falling short.
All you have to do is enter a web page address and it will quickly analyze it for common errors. It’s a good tool to check in with whenever you build a website or make any changes.
In each example, we look at the same job application form format to keep it as fair as possible.
Our methodology
We will be testing each form for the following criteria:
- Can you operate the form without a mouse?
- Do all fields have
Formidable Forms WCAG Evaluation
Formidable Forms is a simple to use drag and drop form builder. You can build simple or complex forms in just a few minutes.
When we put Formidable Forms through the test, our analysis brought up 0 errors and 0 alerts. ?
How accessible is Formidable?
- Can you operate the form without a mouse? ✔ Yes
- Do all fields have ✔ Yes
- ✔ Yes
Read More: Formidable Forms WCAG Feature
WuFoo WCAG Evaluation
WuFoo is an online form builder, so the setup is slightly different from many of the other examples in this post. We tested a job application form with them on Wave and found 0 errors but 10 alerts for things like orphaned form labels and table captions.
How accessible is WuFoo?
- Can you operate the form without a mouse? ✔ Yes
- Do all fields have
Read More: WuFoo Alternative: Formidable vs WuFoo Compared
WPForms WCAG Evaluation
WPForms is another popular plugin with a clean and simple-to-use interface. When we put a sample form through Wave, 2 errors turned up, along with 5 alerts. WPForms had a couple of issues with form control labels mostly.
However, another error was found when trying to enter the date without a mouse, which did not function as intended. Users are able to navigate through the calendar but cannot select a date without using the mouse. This wouldn't be as much of a problem if one was able to simply type the date as a number, but that option is not available.
How accessible is WPForms?
- Can you operate the form without a mouse?
- Do all fields have
Read More: WPForms Alternative: Formidable vs WPForms
Gravity Forms WCAG Evaluation
Gravity Forms is another drag and drop form builder plugin popular with WordPress website users.
When we put it through analysis, we discovered 2 errors and 24 alerts. The main errors flagged up were regarding form control labels and the alerts referred to positive tabindex values.
How accessible is Gravity Forms?
- Can you operate the form without a mouse? ✔ Yes
- Do all fields have
Read More: Gravity Forms Alternative: Formidable vs Gravity Forms
Ninja Forms WCAG Evaluation
Ninja Forms is a simple form builder with lots of great features and integrations. With them, you can build forms with minimal experience.
When we put a form through the validation tool, we found 2 errors and 6 alerts. The errors were due to missing form labels, with alerts relating to form labels and checkbox fieldsets.
Also, as with WPForms above, the calendar date selector is not functioning properly. In this case, a user cannot navigate the calendar in any way without using a mouse. However, users are able to manually type dates into the form.
How accessible is Ninja Forms?
- Can you operate the form without a mouse?
- Do all fields have
Read More: Ninja Forms Alternative: Ninja Forms vs Formidable
Contact Form 7 WCAG Evaluation
Contact Form 7 is one of the oldest and most popular WordPress form builder plugins out there. With their simple interface, we expected it to be pretty accessible. The Wave tool flagged up 4 errors and 3 alerts on their form. Their errors included missing alternative text, and form control labels.
How accessible is Contact Form 7?
- Can you operate the form without a mouse? ✔ Yes
- Do all fields have
Read More: Contact Form 7 Alternative: Formidable vs Contact Form 7
JotForm WCAG Evaluation
Lastly, JotForm, like WuFoo is an online form builder rather than a WordPress plugin. You build the form online and then can embed it into your website page.
When we put JotForm through Wave's analysis, 7 errors and 8 alerts came up. The errors included missing alternative text, form labels, and document language. Like many of the others, the alerts referred to orphaned form labels and missing fieldsets.
How accessible is Jotform?
- Can you operate the form without a mouse? ✔ Yes
- Do all fields have
Read More: JotForm Alternative: Formidable vs JotForm Compared
What is the best ADA-compliant form builder?
A lack of error messages is certainly something to strive for, as difficult as it can be. That's why tools like Wave are so handy.
According to this analysis, the order of form builders with the best web accessibility goes:
- Formidable Forms (best)
- WuFoo
- WPForms
- Gravity Forms
- Ninja Forms
- Contact Form 7
- JotForm (worst)
Why choose Formidable?
Web accessibility is something we take very seriously, so we were delighted to see our form come back with 0 errors. Formidable's WCAG forms are great for screen reader users, include high-contrast text and simple keyboard navigation.
We think that building accessible forms shouldn't have to be difficult. Our simple form builder helps you build WCAG forms in no time at all.
Read more from the Formidable blog
How To Create a Number Range Slider in WordPress
5 Best WordPress Popup Plugins You Can Install Now
How To Add a WordPress Color Picker to Your FormsIf you’re interested in giving Formidable Forms a try, you can read more about our own WCAG form accessibility. Want to know more about Formidable in general? Take a look at our wide range of easy to use features.
Is this information still relevant and up to date ?
It’s 2022 now and this post is from 2020.
We've continued to focus on accessibility. We can't say for sure that all of the competitor data is still accurate though.
If you need accessible forms, Formidable Forms should be a solid option.
I'm a blind web site maintainer evaluating Formidable for our site. Is the Formidable back end WCAG compliant? So far I've had some success making simple forms using the keyboard, but I haven't figured out how to move form fields without the mouse.
Hi Chris,
At the present time, the Formidable Forms back-end/admin pages are not compliant with WCAG standards.
We work very hard to maintain front-end compatibility and accessibility, but our form builder doesn't currently meet the same standards.
This is something we are working toward, but you will likely run into limitations for the time being.