RE: Form labeling and user agent support

Charles,

Interesting. I consider IE behavior with the focus rectangle to be a serious
problem and it is probably related to what you like about the IE
implementation. If you use the label element to label a checkbox or radio
button, when you tab to that control, the focus goes to the label.
Especially interesting when, as in a couple of Kelly's examples a few weeks
ago, the label is actually a link! It does create some visual confusion.

Jim
jim@jimthatcher.com
Accessibility Consulting
http://jimthatcher.com
512-306-0931

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Charles F. Munat
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 4:14 AM
To: WAI Interest Group
Subject: RE: Form labeling and user agent support


Al Gilman wrote:

In a similar thread on the GL list, Jim Thatcher suggested we not bother
with LABEL and just use a TITLE on a form control.

Reply:

One thing I like about labels, however, is that on IE you can click on the
label and the focus will shift to the corresponding input. This is
particularly nice for radio buttons and checkboxes, which can be difficult
to check with the mouse. I don't believe that using the title attribute
provides the same functionality.

Beyond that - and perhaps I'm alone in this - I believe that if we use HTML
the way it should be used, then the browser vendors will catch on and follow
our lead. On the other hand if we continue to use workarounds in our code,
what reason do they have to change the browsers?

Charles F. Munat,
Seattle, Washington

Received on Thursday, 3 May 2001 23:57:59 UTC