Personal-data field has no autocomplete

Why does it matter?

The autocomplete attribute tells the browser what a field is for — the visitor's email, phone number or postcode. Browsers can then fill it in, which saves people with motor or memory impairments from typing the same details on every form, and assistive tools can add familiar icons next to the fields.

Who it affects: Screen reader users, voice-control users who say a field's label to move to it, and people with memory or attention difficulties who lose a placeholder once they type.

What does Lumtera flag?

Text, email and phone fields that seem to ask for the visitor's own details — name, email, phone, street address, postcode, city, country, company or date of birth — but have no autocomplete value, or only "on" or "off". Email and phone fields always count; other fields are judged by their label, name, ID and placeholder, and the item suggests the right value. Search forms, read-only and disabled fields, and fields about someone else or not about a person (a friend's email, a coupon code, a message, a username) are skipped.

Check ID input-autocomplete-missing — use it to filter the content report or with wp lumtera issues --rule.

How do I fix it in WordPress?

Add an autocomplete attribute naming what the field collects, such as autocomplete="email", "name", "tel", "street-address" or "postal-code". Most form plugins have an autocomplete setting on each field. Only fields that ask about the visitor themselves need it, so dismiss this item for fields asking about someone else (for example, a friend's email).

Example

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

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

How do I check the fix?

1. Update the post. The issue disappears from the Lumtera Accessibility sidebar on the next check, and from the site report on the next scan.
2. Click each field's label: the cursor should move into the field. With a screen reader, each field should announce its label when it receives focus.