Forms play an important function in connecting people with University services and opportunities. For example:
- Applying for admission, financial aid, graduation, or employment
- Enrolling in benefits
- Registering for events
- Participating in research
- Participating in feedback, campus climate, or evaluation surveys
- Recording and submitting grades
Everyone who has to fill out any type of form at the UW should be able to understand the questions, submit their responses, and – if their responses include errors – easily find and correct their errors and resubmit.
An accessible form is one that meets these criteria for all users, including people with disabilities. For accessibility principles and technical guidance, see the Forms page in our Digital Accessibility Guide.
Choose web-based forms instead of PDF
When creating a form, choose an accessible web-based solution whenever possible. PDF forms can be made accessible, but doing so requires painstaking work, specialized skills and careful testing. There are other drawbacks to PDFs as well:
- Adding fillable fields alone does not make a PDF accessible.
- The document’s structure, field labels, and navigation order also need to be assessed for accessibility.
- If the form needs to be revised in the original source document (even just to fix a small typo), all accessibility work is lost, and the PDF form needs to be rebuilt from scratch.
For people with disabilities, the experience of completing a PDF form can be difficult, even after form authors have gone through all the steps to ensure technical accessibility.
In contrast to PDF forms, web-based forms are much easier to maintain, provide a better foundation for accessibility, and are easier to use on a variety of devices. The tools described on this page all produce web-based forms, and are therefore preferable to PDF forms.
Kuali Build
The University of Washington has selected Kuali Build as its enterprise form solution, and UWIT Accessible Technology Services (ATS) is actively collaborating with the vendor to ensure their product meets the UW’s accessibility requirements.
Kuali Build allows people to build web-based forms without writing code. It supports workflows that route submissions to the appropriate people for review, approval, or other actions. This makes it useful for processes that involve multiple steps or departments, such as requests and applications.
The UW is currently in the final stages of setting up the Kuali Build service. Please stay tuned for additional information about the service, including instructions for requesting access.
Other form solutions
Other tools may be appropriate for surveys, quizzes, research, or existing departmental processes. These tools provide accessibility support, but selecting a tool does not automatically ensure that every form created with it will be accessible. Question types, formatting, settings, and customizations can all affect the experience. All forms should be tested for accessibility before they are shared with users.
Microsoft Forms
Microsoft Forms is a simple, web-based tool for creating surveys, quizzes, and polls. Integrated with Microsoft 365, it enables seamless data collection and analysis, with results viewable in Excel and Power BI. Forms created with this tool generally meet accessibility requirements, although accessibility problems have been observed with relatively complex field types.
For additional information about accessing Microsoft Forms at the UW, see Microsoft 365 Productivity Apps in the UW Software Catalog.
Google Forms
Google Forms is a web-based survey and form-building application. Integrated with Google Workspace, it enables data collection and analysis, with responses viewable in Google Sheets. Forms created with this tool generally meet accessibility requirements, although accessibility problems have been observed with relatively complex field types.
For additional information about accessing Google Forms at the UW, see Google Workspace in the UW Software Catalog.
Qualtrics
Qualtrics is a web-based survey and research platform licensed by the UW for academic research and administrative projects. Compared with Microsoft Forms and Google Forms, it offers more advanced tools for designing surveys, tailoring questions based on previous responses, and analyzing and reporting results. These capabilities make it useful for research studies, program evaluations, and other projects with relatively complex survey requirements. Qualtrics provides documentation on Survey Accessibility that includes guidance on how to create accessible surveys using their tool. In particular, consult their lists of Accessible Questions and Non-Accessible Questions, and avoid question types that are in the second list.
For additional information about accessing Qualtrics at the UW, see Qualtrics in the UW Software Catalog.
Check your form before sharing it
Regardless of the tool you choose, test the complete process—from opening the form through submitting it and receiving confirmation. Check that people can understand what is being requested, complete every task using a keyboard (no mouse), and find and correct errors. If you need help with testing, please submit a Digital Accessibility Consulting Request to ATS. Additional information and a link to the Request form are on our Help page.