WCAG 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose

Success Criterion 1.3.5 requires that the purpose of input fields collecting common user information can be programmatically determined. It's a Level AA criterion under Guideline 1.3 (Adaptable), added in WCAG 2.1.

What this actually requires

For a defined list of common input purposes (name, email, address, phone number, credit card details, and dozens more standardized by the HTML spec), the field needs a proper autocomplete attribute value identifying which one it is — not just a visible label, but a machine-readable purpose tag.

<label for="email">Email</label>
<input type="email" id="email" name="email" autocomplete="email">

<label for="fname">First name</label>
<input type="text" id="fname" name="fname" autocomplete="given-name">

Who this helps, and why it's broader than it first sounds

The most visible beneficiary is browser/OS autofill — a correctly-tagged form lets users with motor disabilities, cognitive disabilities, or memory difficulties auto-populate fields instead of typing from scratch, which is a meaningful accessibility win, not just a UX convenience. It also helps people using specialized input devices or switch-access technology, for whom typing every field manually is significantly more effortful than for a typical user.

The full list of recognized values

HTML defines a large, standardized set of autocomplete tokens: name, given-name, family-name, email, tel, street-address, postal-code, cc-number, bday, and many more. If a field collects one of these common data types, use the matching token — this criterion doesn't require custom or unusual fields to be tagged, only the ones on the standardized list.

A quick way to check

Fill out a form using your browser's own autofill feature. If fields the browser should reasonably recognize (email, name, address) don't get correctly suggested or filled, that's a strong signal the autocomplete attributes are missing or mismatched.