Compliance with WCAG/ADA for Date Picker using Gravity Forms Fields [RESOLVED]

[SleeperTech (Preston)]

Greetings!

So in 2.5+ there is a new accessibility warning shown for the Date picker. Ok, cool. Let’s get accessible, then!

The aforementioned article recommended an external article entitled “Collecting dates in an accessible way” with some cool examples of how to collect date information in accessible way.

After reviewing the options shown in the external article, I decided on option #2, then tried to recreate this solution using gravity forms native fields wherein I immediately ran into what appears to be a complete show-stopper.

I’m hoping I am mistaken, but there appears to be no way to group the fields together inside of one column (as represented in the solution example) in GF 2.5+ as it appears that only one field can occupy one column inside a row.

So, I tried a rather ugly hack by using the first, middle & last fields of the advanced name field in a totally non-standard way. And almost got the layout that I wanted, but I could not change the sublabels to read DD MM YYYY as displayed in the accessibility article.

Also, the field names on the backend still show as First, Middle & Last instead of DD MM YYY which I need. Plus I’m sure this non-standard use of the name field creates all kinds of other complications I don’t know about.

Therefore, the only way (i know of) to fix this issue is to develop an accessible Date Field from scratch, correct? While it is nice that GF noted the accessibility issues with the Date field and others (+1), it would have been great if they also developed accessible versions of the fields they warned about (-1).

But considering that almost two years after the controversial post asking Why Gravity Forms Doesn’t Support Modern Form Elements, according to their own “Roadmap” they still have not even stated they are even planning to support EVEN ONE modern element. 2 Years. Not. Even. One. I just have never seen anything like this type of resistance to much needed upgrades from any plugin developer, ever. Now, 2.5 is cool, but that does not address the modern form elements issue at all. …but that is for another post.

For this issue, my questions are as follows

• Is there some solution to the accessible Date Field issue that I am missing/not aware of?

• Does anyone have any ideas on how to achieve the accessibility solution as shown in the external article?

• Is there possibly an existing accessible date field somewhere out there on “the internets” which anyone recommends?

• Or is this something we have to develop for ourselves.

Please advise,
Thanks.

[Jake_Jackson (Jake Jackson (Gravity PDF))]

One of the other two Date Input Types available to the Date field (either Date Field or Date Drop Down) should be what you are looking for. The accessibility issue you mentioned is only for the Date Picker type I believe.

This will save the date as a single field in Gravity Forms:

Hope that helps!

[SleeperTech (Preston)]

…wow. Well don’t I feel like Boo-Boo the Fool. That’s clearly on me and NOT on Gravity Forms (this time). Thank you @Jake_Jackson for the clarification. Well folks, I think I’ll be dining on crow fricassee and washing it down with a big glass of RTFM! …ahhh delicious!