If your survey goes out to the public, to students, to patients or to staff, some of the people receiving it will have a visual, motor or cognitive disability. Universities, hospitals and public bodies are often required to show their research is accessible before it is approved.
Some of this PaperSurvey handles for you. The rest is in how you design the survey, and this article covers both.
What PaperSurvey does automatically
Readable colours on web surveys. You choose your own brand colours, and a pale colour can end up unreadable as text. Where your colour is used for text, we darken or lighten it just enough to meet the WCAG 2.1 AA contrast minimum, keeping it recognisably your colour. Backgrounds, borders and highlights keep the exact colour you picked.
A contrast warning in the editor. When you pick heading colours that do not contrast enough with each other, the editor tells you before you publish, and suggests a colour that works.
Keyboard navigation on web surveys. Respondents can move through a web survey with the Tab key, choose options with the arrow keys and space bar, and submit without a mouse.
Standard form markup. Questions and answer options are marked up as real form controls with labels attached, so screen readers announce them properly.
Designing an accessible web survey
Write the question so it stands alone. A screen reader reads the question text; it does not convey layout. "Which of these applies?" only works if the reader can see what "these" refers to. Name it in the question.
Use the helper text field for instructions, not a heading placed above the question. Helper text is read out as part of the question; a separate heading may not be.
Do not rely on colour alone to carry meaning. If red means a problem, also say "problem" in words. Around one man in twelve has some form of colour vision deficiency.
Keep required questions genuinely required. Every required question a respondent cannot answer is a dead end, and someone using assistive technology hits those dead ends most often.
Be careful with long grids. A grid with many rows and columns is one of the hardest structures to complete with a screen reader. If a grid is long, consider splitting it into separate questions.
Give a plain contact route. Include an email address or phone number in the survey introduction for someone who cannot complete it as presented. This is often the single thing an ethics committee or accessibility office looks for.
Designing an accessible paper survey
Paper has its own constraints, and small changes make a large difference.
Increase the font size. Large print usually means at least 16pt, and 18pt or larger for readers with low vision. You can set the font size for the whole survey in the design settings.
Increase the checkbox size. Larger boxes are easier to see and easier to mark accurately for someone with a tremor or limited fine motor control. Anything from 5mm upwards is a noticeable improvement, and it also helps recognition accuracy.
Keep contrast high on paper. Black text on white paper is the most readable combination. Coloured backgrounds behind text, and light grey text, are both much harder to read, and they also reduce scanning accuracy.
Give more writing space. Open-ended questions with generous lines are easier for someone with a motor impairment, and handwriting that stays inside the box is transcribed more accurately.
Avoid dense two-column layouts where the reading order is not obvious.
Offer a large-print version. You can create a second version of the same survey with a larger font and larger boxes. Both versions collect into the same dataset, so you do not have to merge anything afterwards.
Offering an alternative format
The most robust approach is to offer the same survey more than one way. PaperSurvey lets you collect on paper and on the web from the same survey, and every response lands in the same place.
A common pattern that works well:
- The web survey, for anyone using a screen reader or their own assistive technology, which is usually the most accessible option because the respondent already has their device set up the way they need it.
- A standard paper version.
- A large-print paper version for anyone who asks.
- A way to complete the survey with help, for example a member of staff entering answers on the respondent's behalf.
State in the invitation that alternative formats are available and how to ask for one.
Testing before you send
Try the web survey with the keyboard only. Put the mouse aside and complete it with Tab, arrow keys, space and Enter. If you get stuck, so will someone who has no choice.
Zoom the page to 200 per cent. Text should reflow and stay readable rather than overlapping or disappearing.
Print the paper version and read it at arm's length. Small text and small boxes are much more obvious on paper than on screen.
Ask someone else to complete it. The fastest way to find the confusing question is to watch one person try to answer it.
If your organisation requires a formal accessibility report
Universities and public bodies in the United States often ask suppliers for a VPAT, an accessibility conformance report against Section 508 and WCAG. Write to hello@papersurvey.io with what your procurement process needs and we will tell you what we can provide and where we currently stand.
We would rather tell you plainly what is and is not covered than hand over a report that does not survive testing.