ACT Rule 73f2c2
Autocomplete attribute has valid value
The autocomplete attribute tells the browser what a field is for. Two things follow. The browser can fill the field in, and assistive technology can label it in words the person already recognizes. This rule checks that the value you used is one the specification defines.
A tool can decide this one on its own, which is why it turns up in scanner output. The rule is approved, which in W3C's process means it was implemented in full by at least one tool or methodology and then signed off by a working group. Approval is a statement about tools, not a statement that this is the settled way to test the criterion.
What passing this rule proves
When this rule fails, 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose is not satisfied, and that half is certain. When it passes, W3C's own outcome mapping says the criterion still needs further testing. So a green result here is evidence that one specific thing is not broken, and it is the answer W3C gives on 59 of its 87 live rules.
A valid value is not a correct value. autocomplete="family-name" on the first address line is valid, and wrong, and this rule passes it. The criterion also expects the attribute on the fields that need it, and a field with no autocomplete at all is invisible here. Read the form field by field, which takes about ten minutes on a checkout.
The criteria this rule is a test for
These are the criteria the rule names as its own conformance requirement. Each one is a far bigger question than this rule asks, and our page for it sets out what the whole criterion covers.
- 1.3.5 Identify Input Purpose Level AA
The normative rule text lives at W3C
What the rule applies to, and exactly what it expects, is published by W3C and can change. We link to it rather than restate it, so nothing here can quietly fall out of date against the source. Read rule 73f2c2 at W3C.
Tell the browser what each input field is for
The autocomplete attribute names what a field collects using a fixed vocabulary. Given that name, a browser can fill the field in. Other software can relabel it with icons or familiar wording.
That matters to people with motor difficulties who type at real cost. It matters to people with memory or attention difficulties for whom recalling a postcode is the hard part rather than typing it.
An invented value is the common fault. Anything outside the defined list is ignored. A field that looks annotated is doing nothing at all because the browser does not recognize it.
Fixes that satisfy it
If this rule fails on your site, these are the techniques that put it right.
All 87 ACT rules are grouped by the criteria they test, and 24 of them decide nothing about WCAG on their own. Run a free scan to see which of these your own pages trip.