Forms are not neutral. They can invite participation — or quietly exclude. Every form we publish is a door, and a door is either something a person can open on a bad day or something that turns them away without ever saying so.
This is the minimum standard for any form used by Stimpunks: intake, applications, surveys, internal operations, fundraising, or research. It applies whether the form takes thirty seconds or thirty minutes, and whether ten people will fill it in or a thousand.
The standard exists because the cost of a badly designed form is invisible to whoever built it. Nobody files a complaint about the question they couldn’t answer. They just close the tab, and we never learn what we lost.
Purpose & Transparency
- Every form must begin with a plain-language purpose statement.
- Required fields must be clearly labeled. Optional is the default.
Forms must explain:
- how the information will be used
- who will have access to it
- what happens after submission
Cognitive Load
- Forms must be as short as possible.
- Questions must be grouped into clearly labeled sections (use headings or lily pads).
- Avoid compound, trick, or multi-part questions.
- Remove “nice-to-have” data.
Language & Framing
- Use plain, direct language.
- Avoid institutional, legalistic, or deficit-framed wording.
- Do not assume capacity, resources, time, or executive function.
- Do not require performative professionalism.
Response Flexibility
- Avoid long narrative requirements.
- Do not impose minimum word counts unless essential.
When feasible, offer multiple ways to respond:
- text
- file upload
- audio or video
- follow-up conversation
Visual & Sensory Design
- High contrast text and backgrounds are required.
- No flashing elements, animations, or time limits.
- Long forms must be broken into sections or pages.
- Field labels must be visible — do not rely on placeholders.
Neurodiversity & Disability Inclusion
- No timers, countdowns, or urgency cues.
- Allow saving progress and returning later when possible.
- Accept varied answer styles and levels of detail.
- Design for fluctuating energy, memory, and attention.
Technical Accessibility
- Avoid CAPTCHAs that block Disabled users. Provide alternatives if unavoidable.
All forms must be:
- keyboard navigable
- screen-reader friendly
- mobile usable without loss of function
Error Handling
- Error messages must explain what went wrong and how to fix it.
- Entered data must not be erased on error.
- Errors should be phrased neutrally and respectfully.
An error state is the moment a form is most likely to lose someone. It arrives when a person has already spent their energy, and it usually arrives as blame. Design it as the place you are most careful, not the place you stopped paying attention.
Power & Safety
- Collect only information that is truly necessary.
- Do not require disclosure of diagnosis, trauma, or identity unless essential.
- When forms relate to selection, funding, or review, name the system of power involved.
- Provide a contact for questions, corrections, or accommodations.
What this looks like in practice
Meeting Your Needs is the standard applied: a request form that lets someone ask for what they need without building a case for deserving it. No justification field, no evidence requirement, no assessment of whether the need is real.
Implementation
This page is the standard. How it gets built into our site — the contrast values, the CSS variables, the dark-mode work — lives in the Reading Experience notes in the IT Field Guide.
Worth reading if you maintain forms here: our own field labels sat at 1.4:1 in Dark Mode for a awhile, which is not low contrast so much as invisible. Descriptions were at 1.3:1, and the required-field asterisk and error text at 3.2:1 — a failure that lands hardest exactly when someone has made a mistake and needs to be told what it was. The fix was not a rule fighting the plugin’s markup but re-pointing the CSS variables the plugin publishes, and the contrast math and the dead ends are recorded there.
A standard nobody measures against is a wish. Check the numbers.