WCAG 2.1 · Level AA · Perceivable
WCAG 1.3.5 — Identify Input Purpose, explained with examples
Inputs collecting common personal information must have a programmatic purpose set, typically via the autocomplete attribute. Allows browsers and assistive tech to autofill, customize labels, and offer symbol-based help.
- Number
- 1.3.5
- Level
- AA
- Principle
- Perceivable
- Guideline
- 1.3 Adaptable
Why this criterion exists
Allows browsers and assistive tech to autofill, customize labels, and offer symbol-based help.
If you only remember one thing: inputs collecting common personal information must have a programmatic purpose set, typically via the autocomplete attribute. Everything else on this page is detail.
Who feels it when this fails
Accessibility criteria sometimes feel abstract until you see who pays the cost when a site ignores them. Identify Input Purpose affects:
Cognitive accessibility
Older users
Mobile users
How sites typically fail it
These are the patterns we see week after week. None are intentional — they are accidents of how teams build interfaces under deadline. Knowing the failure modes is the fastest path to writing them out of your component library.
Email input without autocomplete="email"
Address fields without autocomplete tokens
How to test for it
Inspect personal-data inputs for autocomplete tokens.
Automated scanners catch this criterion most of the time, but never all of the time. Manual testing with the keyboard and a screen reader closes the gap.
A code fix you can copy
Use the standard autocomplete tokens defined in HTML5 (email, family-name, postal-code, etc).
The problem
<input type="email" id="email">The fix
<input type="email" id="email" autocomplete="email">
<input type="text" id="ln" autocomplete="family-name">Use the standard autocomplete tokens defined in HTML5 (email, family-name, postal-code, etc).
Frequently asked questions
Which inputs require the autocomplete attribute under 1.3.5?
WCAG 1.3.5 applies to inputs that collect personal information: name (given-name, family-name), address (street-address, postal-code, address-level1/2), contact (email, tel), and authentication (username, current-password, new-password). Inputs collecting business information, product customisation, or arbitrary user-defined data are not covered. The full list of valid tokens is in the HTML Living Standard.
Does autocomplete help users beyond screen reader users?
Yes — autocomplete benefits everyone who uses a password manager, anyone with cognitive disabilities who struggles to recall and retype addresses, users with motor impairments for whom typing is slow or painful, and anyone on a mobile device where typing long addresses is tedious. It is one of the highest-return accessibility improvements for form completion rates.
Other Perceivable criteria
1.1.1 Non-text Content
Perceivable · Level A
1.3.1 Info and Relationships
Perceivable · Level A
1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
Perceivable · Level AA
1.4.11 Non-text Contrast
Perceivable · Level AA
All WCAG 2.1 criteria
Browse the full index by principle
Complete WCAG 2.1 guide
POUR principles, conformance levels, legal requirements
How to fix: missing autocomplete attributes
Fix recipe · 1.3.5
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