Docusign

Docusign allows you to send electronic forms and collect digital signatures. If prepared carefully, Docusign documents can be fairly accessible.

The easiest way to create an accessible Docusign form

  • Start with an accessible Google Doc. This means using correct heading structure, lists, and alt text for images. Be sure to include space for your form fields (don’t be stingy!).
  • For questions that will use radio buttons or checkboxes, just apply standard list formatting. (You can change the style of bullets under Format → Bullets & Numbering → List options.) You’ll add functioning radio buttons and checkboxes in DocuSign.
  • If a question is required, add “(Required)” or an asterisk (*) next to the question text for sighted users.
  • Open the Grackle Docs extension.
  • Run the Grackle accessibility checker and fix any issues (ignore the footer error).
  • Export your Google Doc as a PDF using the Grackle tool. (This is important. If you export the PDF using the Google export option, the tags will be incorrect.)
  • You should now have a read-only PDF with accessibility tags, but it won’t be accessible as a form because it doesn’t have tagged, interactive form fields yet.
  • Import the PDF into Docusign and add your form fields.
  • It’s very important to add tooltips in the settings for each question because this is what screen readers will use to describe to blind and low vision users what each field is asking for. Additionally, radio buttons must have radio button values. (Note: This applies to PDFs and Docusign forms only. Tooltips are not used by assistive tech in webforms.)
  • If a field is required, mark it as required in the settings.
  • Hint: If you plan to send the same form again in the future, consider creating a template.

Radio buttons

Must do:

  • Add the question text to the Group Tooltip. This is what the screen reader software uses to tell blind users what the question is. Note: The Group tooltip is repeated for every possible answer choice so be as brief as possible.
  • Add the answers to the Radio Button Values. Otherwise, blind users won’t know what the possible answers are – they’ll just be told there’s a radio button and if it’s checked or unchecked.
  • If the question is required, be sure to mark it as required in the settings.

Checkboxes

Must do:

  • Add the question text to the Group Tooltip. Otherwise, screen readers don’t read the question. Again, be brief because the tooltip is repeated for every answer choice.
  • If the question is required, indicate the minimum number of selections in the Validation setting.

Interestingly, you do not need to add checkbox labels. The screen reader automatically reads the text answers. If you add Checkbox Labels in the settings, they will override the visual text and the screen reader will read those labels instead.

Optional:

Unlike for radio buttons, the screen reader does not announce the number of answer choices or where the user is in the list for checkbox questions. For an improved experience, you can add the answers to the checkbox labels along with “1 of 6”, “2 of 6,” etc. so blind and low vision users know where they are in the list.

A second method

If you have a professionally remediated PDF form, you can import the existing tagged form fields into DocuSign.

To do this, when the “convert PDF form fields” modal pops up, select “Assign to” and then select a recipient. This option will appear after you upload your PDF, complete the first page, and click the “next” button. It will open before the second page where fields are added in Docusign.

You will not need to re-add any form fields. However, if your form has a digital signature field, you may wish to add this in Docusign, since it has more robust digital signature security features than standard PDFs.

Pop up for converting PDF form fields with arrows pointing at assign to and select recipient.

Note: Remediating PDF forms is much more difficult than remediating read-only content. Therefore we strongly urge you to have forms professionally remediated to ensure all users can use your forms to access services.

How to test your Docusign form

Because of the way the Docusign interface is “layered” over an existing PDF, it does not behave the same way as html web content. Therefore, accessibility checkers you might use for web pages (WAVE, contrast checker, alt text viewer, etc) will likely provide incomplete or inaccurate information.

However, you can (and should) ensure your form works with a screenreader. NVDA is a free screenreader for Windows machines (Voiceover is available for Mac).

Turn on the screen reader and starting at the top, use the Tab key (Shift-tab to go backwards) to move through all of the interactive elements. For radio buttons, you’ll need to use the arrow keys.

Make sure all form fields are correctly announced. If they aren’t, blind and low vision users will not be able to complete the form.

For example, an unlabeled button will just be read as “button” and blind users won’t know what it does. Similarly, they won’t know what information to add to an unlabeled text field.

Note: You may also choose to use the “Press Enter to use the screenreader to access your document” option, which will read through the entire form, including the static text. This is a great way to check your heading levels.

In the case of barriers

Although Docusign forms can be designed to work for screen reader users and keyboard-only users, there are a wide variety of assistive technologies and devices available, all of which are constantly evolving. Therefore, you should always provide reliable contact information in case someone can’t access your form and requires assistance.

Additional resources