Web Almanac 2025: Forms

I've yet to work on a website that didn't have a form. Forms are the cornerstone of the web. It's how people interact effectively with websites. It's how they log in to their bank account. It's how they buy stuff online. How they comment on social media. Without forms, you can't sign up for services, share information or really do mostly anything online. So making sure everyone can use them is critical.

According to the 2025 Web Almanac section on forms, the numbers show some small improvements.

More sites are using proper <label> elements now. About 35% of mobile inputs in 2025, up from 32% in 2024 have a detected properly associated <label> element to inputs. But there's still a major problem. Over half of all form inputs (53-55%) only use placeholder text for labels. This is shit for accessibility because that text disappears when you start typing, not to mention the predominant contrast issues for placeholders. The use of aria-label also rose by 5% this year.

WebAIM’s 2025 Million report found 34.2% of form inputs unlabeled. This aligns with the numbers in the Almanac.

So while things are slowly getting better, most forms still aren't properly accessible.

The Almanac didn't go into detail on how you can test your forms, so I thought I'd give you five easy ways to make sure your forms work for more people:

1. Use proper <label> elements. Every input should have a visible label connected with the for attribute pointing to the input's id. Never rely on placeholder text alone.
2. Test with keyboard only. Try filling out your forms using just Tab, Shift+Tab and Enter. If you can't navigate through everything or can't tell what field you're on, it needs fixing.
3. Check colour contrast. Make sure your labels and any helper text meet WCAG contrast requirements. That's at least 4.5:1 for normal text. Placeholder text typically fails this by default.
4. Use a screen reader. Don't be afraid. Fire up NVDA or VoiceOver and listen to what gets announced for each field. If it's not clear what information is needed, users won't know either.
5. Run automated accessibility checkers. Tools like axe or WAVE can quickly flag inputs without proper labels or other common form accessibility issues as a first pass before manual testing.

Here's something the Web Almanac didn't cover. How are errors handled in forms? I'll do that next.