Application Forms That Have to Be Printed

Print, fill in, scan, send

Plenty of small business websites still handle their most important forms on paper. Download the application, print it, fill it in by hand, sign it, scan it and email it back.

Job applications, class registrations, new client intake forms and party bookings all turn up this way, usually as a PDF linked from a page.

It looks like a sensible shortcut: the paper form already existed, so the website simply offers it.

But it asks every visitor to own a printer and a scanner, to write by hand and to see the page. Plenty of people cannot do one of those.

Who the paper form shuts out

• Screen reader users, for whom a scanned form is a blank picture.
• People who cannot write by hand easily, or at all.
• Anyone on a phone, with no printer within reach.
• People without a scanner, who photograph the pages instead.
• People with low vision, zooming into small boxes on a small screen.
• Your own staff, who type up the handwriting afterwards.

The first is the hardest to see from the office. A PDF made by scanning a printed form is a photograph of text, and screen reader software, which speaks a page to someone who cannot see it, finds nothing there.

Fillable PDFs are only halfway

A fillable PDF, with boxes you can type into, is an improvement on a scan. On a computer, someone can complete it without a pen.

But the boxes are often unlabelled, so a screen reader announces one empty field after another with no clue what each one wants.

On phones, many PDF viewers will not fill them in at all, and saving the completed file and attaching it to an email defeats most people.

Accessible PDF forms can be built, with tagged and labelled fields, but it takes specialist work, and the result is still awkward on a phone.

What a proper web form gives you

A form built into the page works on any device, uses the keyboard the phone already offers, and arrives in your inbox already typed.

WCAG 2.0, the accessibility standard most guidance points to, expects every field to have a label a screen reader can announce, the whole form to work from a keyboard, and errors explained in words.

Those requirements also make a form easier for everyone else. The person filling it in on a bus with one thumb benefits from the same labels.

Which forms to convert first

Start with the forms tied to income or hiring: bookings, registrations, applications. A lost submission there is a lost customer or a lost employee.

Then the forms with a season. A registration form that matters for three weeks a year should work during those three weeks.

Forms used twice a year by staff can wait. Some can stay as accessible documents, and a few can be retired altogether.

A worked example

A family-run mini golf course near a beach town opens from spring to early fall, hires a crew of students every May and hosts birthday parties most weekends.

Both the job application and the party booking form were PDFs. The party form was a scan of the paper version kept at the counter.

Most applicants were teenagers applying from phones, with no printer at home. Many applications arrived as photographs of crumpled pages, some with the second page missing.

Then a parent who uses a screen reader phoned to book a party and mentioned that the form was, to her, a blank page.

Both became web forms before this season's hiring. The application asks for contact details, availability by ticking days of the week and any previous work, with an optional resume upload.

The party form asks for a date, the number of children and a choice of package.

Every field has a visible label, the package choices sit under one question, and both forms were tried with a screen reader and on a phone before going live.

Building the replacement properly

Labels sit above or beside each field and stay visible while someone types, rather than grey text inside the box that vanishes.

Related choices sit together under one question, so a screen reader announces the question before the options. Required fields say so in words, and errors appear as text beside the field to fix.

Fields for phone numbers and email addresses should be marked as such, so phones bring up the right keyboard. And any spam check needs an alternative that works without sight.

Signatures and the habit of paper

Many forms ask for a signature out of habit. For an application or a booking, a typed name and a box confirming the details are accurate usually does the same job.

Where a signature has legal weight, as on some agreements and waivers, ask whoever drafted the form what an online version needs, rather than keeping everyone else on paper.

Where the answers go

Each submission should arrive by email at an address someone checks, with a confirmation to the person who filled it in saying what happens next and when.

The page needs HTTPS, because the form collects personal details, and submissions should be kept only as long as they are needed.

A clear message on screen after sending ends the uncertainty that used to make people phone to check their form had arrived.

The counter-case

Some forms are not yours to change: an insurer's claim form or a licensing body's application has to be used as issued. Link to it, and offer help by phone.

Very long questionnaires may need splitting into steps, or a conversation instead. And a paper version can stay at the counter for those who prefer it; it just should not be the only way in.

For the forms that bring in customers and staff, build proper web forms and test them the way your visitors will use them.

Converting the first one

1. List every PDF form linked from the site.
2. Try each one on a phone, start to finish.
3. Pick the one customers use most.
4. Cut questions nobody reads the answers to.
5. Build it as a web form with visible labels.
6. Fill it in by keyboard alone, then by screen reader.
7. Keep a printable copy for anyone who asks.

Step six is the one that proves the work. iPhones and Macs include a screen reader, and NVDA is free for Windows, so ten minutes listening to your own form shows whether someone who cannot see it can finish it.

Giving recorded audio the same text-first treatment is covered in podcasts and audio without transcripts.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.