1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (Level AA) — WCAG 2.1
WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (Level AA): what it requires, a common e-commerce accessibility failure, and how to fix it.
This is educational technical reference content, not legal advice. It explains what WCAG 2.1 requires and how to meet it — not whether a specific site carries legal risk. Compliance with WCAG, the ADA, or any other accessibility law or standard is a legal determination; consult qualified counsel for legal risk assessment.
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1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose (Level AA)
What it requires: Common input fields (name, email, address, phone, credit card fields) need their purpose programmatically identifiable — in HTML, this means using the correct autocomplete attribute values from the WCAG-referenced list.
Common failure: A checkout form’s email and shipping-address fields have no autocomplete attributes, so browser autofill and assistive personalization tools can’t recognize what each field is for.
Fix it: Add the appropriate autocomplete value to every applicable field — autocomplete="email", autocomplete="street-address", autocomplete="cc-number", and so on, per the WCAG Input Purposes list.
In 1.3 Adaptable: ← 1.3.4 Orientation · 1.3.6 Identify Purpose →
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This is educational technical reference content, not legal advice. It explains what WCAG 2.1 requires and how to meet it — not whether a specific site carries legal risk. Compliance with WCAG, the ADA, or any other accessibility law or standard is a legal determination; consult qualified counsel for legal risk assessment.
This page was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by a person for accuracy before publication.