DocuSign Accessibility

DocuSign forms can be accessible, but it requires following a few important steps:

1. Start with an accessible original
   • Before uploading a form to DocuSign, make sure that it is fully accessible -- for PDF forms, follow the requirements for PDF Accessibility. (Note that it may be difficult or impossibe to make forms from other formats, e.g., Word or Excel, accessible.)
   • Make sure your original form has all the fields you want so you can avoid adding or moving fields in DocuSign.
2. Convert form fields
   • When you upload a PDF form to DocuSign, it will ask how you would like to "manage PDF form field data". Choose "Assign to" so that DocuSign converts the PDF form fields to DocuSign fields. If there isn't anyone in the "Assign to" list, go back to the upload screen and enter a recipient (e.g., "test").
   • Try to avoid adding or moving fields in DocuSign. (It can change the order in which they are read.) It's OK to change the size of fields.
   • If you have to replace any fields, position the upper left corner of the new field in the same position as the upper left corner of the old one to .
3. Check Tooltips
   • Click on each of the DocuSign form fields (yellowish boxes), look in the Properties Panel on the right, expand the Tooltip section, and check that the Tooltip matches the label for the field shown on the screen (e.g., "First Name", "Street Address", etc.) If not, edit the Tooltip so it matches.
   • Make sure that Tooltips for fields with multi-part labels include the entire label (e.g., "Shipping Street Address").
   • Note that Signature, Initial, Company, and Title fields will automatically have "Sign Here", "Initial Here", "Company", and "Title" added to their Tooltips, respectively, and this extra text isn't shown in the Tooltip box. Only add tooltips to these fields if there are more than one on the form, and only enter the part that you need to tell them apart (e.g., "Requester" and "Recipient" for "Requester Signature" and "Recipient Signature").
4. Check Radio Group Labels and Values
   • Check that the Group Tooltip provides the "question" that the Radio Buttons answer (e.g., "What is your favorite color?").
   • Check that the Radio Button Values match the label for each radio button shown on the screen (e.g., "Red", "Blue", "Yellow").
   • If you have any trouble with radio buttions, you can always use a dropdown instead.
5. Check Checkbox Values
   • Check that the Checkbox Values match the label for each radio button shown on the screen.
   • If the checkboxes are answers to a question, add the question to the Checkbox Value for every checkbox (e.g., "What's your favorite color? Blue" and "What's your favorite color? Yellow"). This is a workaround for a bug preventing Checkbox Group Tooltips from being read; after the bug is fixed, just put the question in the Group Tooltip.
6. Check Field Order
   • Send yourself your form, click on the first field, and then press the Tab key on the keyboard to move from field to field, checking that the fields are in the right order. If not, set the Field Order property to the correct order for all fields. (If you need to set Field Order on any field, you need to set them all.)

Important: If you're working with anything other that the features described above, like PowerForms, Supplemental Documents, etc., additional steps will be required to ensure accessibility -- ask for help from your accessibility team and plan to do additional testing.