Web Accessibility Criteria - Review and Submit

• Introduction
• Best Practices
• Examples
• How to Test for Review and Submission
• WCAG 2.1 and References 

 Introduction

Users should be provided the opportunity to avoid or correct errors on their form submissions. If submission editing is not possible then the user should be given adequate time and opportunities to review all their inputted data before final submission. In cases where the submission creates legal commitment, executes a transaction or comes with other substantial consequence for incorrect submissions then special care should be taken. The purpose of review and submission is to ensure users are provided adequate means of review before submitting irreversible actions.

Implementing proper review and submission technique will help ensure that the correct information is provided and assists in preventing user errors. It is also important that the user is properly notified when the form has been submitted successfully to prevent confusion or require the user to take additional steps to confirm their form has been submitted.

 Best Practice

Review Answers before Submission

Single Page Forms

When filling a 1-page form the user can easily review their answers before submitting since all the information is presented in one place. However, forms that span multiple pages and requires the user to go through multiple steps before submitting can present difficulties as the user may not remember all of the answers they had inputted.

Multiple Page Forms

Two approaches can be implemented to ensure proper review and submission on multi-step forms. One approach is to allow the user to navigate back and forth through all the form pages to review all the data entered. A second approach is to summarize all the users answers in one page before finalizing the form submission.

Providing Confirmation to Continue

When there is an action that can not be undone present, it is important that the user is notified through a message or an alert before they finalize the action (such as completing a transaction or deleting a profile). This will help users avoid submitting a form or deleting data by mistake.

Providing Success Feedback

When the user submits the form a consistently presented feedback should be provided explicitly stating the success of the action. The feedback should be provided in a way which notifies the user that the form was successfully submitted and was sent through the proper channels (i.e. Uploaded to the database or submitted to a specific person). It is helpful to also include methods of communication should the user have any questions.

Submissions with Substantial Consequences

When submission of a form carries substantial consequences then at least one of the following implementations must be true:

• The submission must be reversible
• The submission must be checked for errors and the user must be given an opportunity to resolve the errors
• The user must be provided a process for reviewing, confirming, and correcting the information prior to submission.

 Examples

Example 1: Multiple Page Form Review

A student is using an online testing application which provides multiple pages of questions for a midterm exam. At any time the student is able to return to previously completed sections to review and change answers. Before submitting the exam, the student is shown a final page with the options to submit the answers or review them.

Example 2: Counseling Appointment Form

A student is filling out a form which requires them to provide personal information which includes their name, contact information, anticipated graduation date, requested counseling date, birthday and student ID number. At the end of the form there are two buttons, one is a "submit" button which books the time slot and the second button is a "cancel" button which clears all the information the student filled out. After filling out the form the student accidentally presses the "cancel" button and an alert appears which says "I confirm that I wish to cancel this request and reset all the information provided." The student realizes their mistake and clicks "no" and then proceeds to submit the counseling appointment form.

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 How to Test

Review

1. If a form provides multiple pages to a user, then a user must be able to return to any pages in case a user wants to change or fix any mistakes that were made
2. A review button should be provided once a user is finished filling out all the required fields.
3. Check that a user is prompted to review the information they have inputted.
4. Check that a summary of all the user’s inputted data is provided and that a means to correct any errors is provided before the information is submitted, via the submit button.

Submit

1. Fill in form fields with no errors.
2. For each form, check that it has a submit button (input type="submit" or button type="submit"
3. Submit the form.
4. Check that a feedback message on the screen confirms that the submission was successful.

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 WCAG 2.1 and References