November 16, 2023

Contact Form 7: Accessible Defaults Plugin

Replaces the default Contact Form 7 form with an accessible equivalent and provides a suite of selectable base forms.

How to use this plug-in:

If you install and activate this plug-in before installing Contact Form 7, the default form created by Contact Form 7 will be accessible. If you’ve already installed Contact Form 7, you’ll want to delete the default form and create new forms using the templates available in this plug-in.

Use Contact Form 7 with an accessible default form

This plug-in replaces the default template that Contact Form 7 automatically generates with an accessible equivalent of that form and adds a suite of additional basic form types that you can choose from to model your new forms.

The plug-in doesn’t change anything about forms that have already been built with Contact Form 7. The structure of Contact Form 7 is such that it isn’t possible for the plug-in to rewrite existing forms for improved accessibility, but it is possible to make sure that the base you have for starting a form is accessible.

Contact Form 7 is actually a very accessible plug-in. It has an accessible back-end, and if you create the right template, the front-end form will have great accessibility.

Since version 4.5, Contact Form 7 has included the label element; but the usage of them is limited, and isn’t the best possible method. This plug-in supplies a new default form that includes everything you need to make your default form accessible.

For more information about making Contact Form 7 accessible, read how to set up an accessible form using contact form 7, by Rian Rietveld.

Installation

Upload the contact-form-7-accessible-defaults folder to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin using the Plugins menu in WordPress
Create a new Contact Form 7 form.

Screenshots

Contact Form 7 accessible default form
Contact Form 7 form selection

FAQ

Will this fix all my Contact Form 7 forms?

Nope. All this does is change Contact Form 7 so that the default form it generates is accessible. This gives you a model for what an accessible form should look like in Contact Form 7 (with appropriately associated labels and IDs, and with the response moved to the top of the form.), but does nothing at all to change how Contact Form 7 behaves.

Why aren’t there demos for all types of fields?

Two reasons. First, with the current version of Contact Form 7 it’s not possible to make the quiz input type accessible. I’ve already reported this to the plug-in author, and it will be updated soon. Second, because I haven’t had time to create forms that use every possible field. If you’ve got another example you’d like to see in a basic form, let me know!

Changelog

1.1.8

Update code style for PHPCS conformance.
Update tested to & retest with WordPress 6.4 and Contact Form 7 5.8.3.
Update copyright.
Minor text & style changes.
Code simplification.

1.1.7

Misc. code quality changes. Minor.

1.1.6

Test with WordPress 5.4 & Contact Form 7 5.1.6
Update to docs.

1.1.5

Test with WordPress 5.2 & Contact Form 7 5.1

1.1.4

Test with WordPress 4.7 & Contact Form 7 4.6
Add checkbox example in Address template

1.1.3

Test with WordPress 4.5
Bug fix: Only show template selector when creating a new form
Add info link for this plug-in in Information panel for Contact Form 7
Changed textdomain to match slug

1.1.2

Update layout for better usability in Templates tab.
Updated textdomain loaded method
Rewrote parts of readme text
Updated screenshots

1.1.1

Update to reflect new Contact Form 7 UI

1.1.0

Bug fix: incorrect label text for message field.
New Feature: multiple selectable base forms to use as form starters.

1.0.0

Initial release