RE: Explicit vs. implicit label association

Please do not commit to one way or another yet - there are apparently a lot
of issues with implicit labels.  Internet Explorer 4.01 doesn't support
ACCESSKEY attribute on a implicitly bounded control.

That is:

<LABEL ACCESSKEY=N>Name:<INPUT TYPE=TEXT></LABEL> does not work.

However:

<LABEL FOR=name1 ACCESSKEY=N>Name:<INPUT TYPE=TEXT ID=name1></LABEL> does
work.

It's apparently very difficult to make the implicit case work because of
nesting and bad HTML issues.  I'm working on getting a better answer from
the developers.  I'm also concerned because the implicit way may not make
the label available to the input control element.  This affects DOM/DHTML
and Active Accessibility greatly.

I bring this up because if IE can never support the implicit case, then that
might affect the recommendations one way or another.

-----Original Message-----
From: Wendy A Chisholm [mailto:chisholm@trace.wisc.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 1998 11:05 AM
To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: RE: Explicit vs. implicit label association


Per today's comments and existing examples in html 4.0,  here is the
proposed
new content for recommendation 8.2:

[Required]
  Associate labels with their form controls.
Labels can either be associated explicitly, using the "for" attribute,
or implicitly, by nesting the control element within the content of the
LABEL element.

[New] The "for" attribute of the LABEL element allows explicit
association. For example:
<FORM action="http://somesite.com/adduser" method="post">
  <FIELDSET>
    <LEGEND>Personal information</LEGEND>
    <LABEL for="firstname">First name:</LABEL>
    <INPUT type="text" id="firstname" tabindex="1">
    <LABEL for="lastname">Last name:</LABEL>
    <INPUT type="text" id="lastname" tabindex="2">
    ...more personal information...
  </FIELDSET>
  <FIELDSET>
    <LEGEND>Medical History</LEGEND>
    ...medical history information...
  </FIELDSET>
</FORM>

[New] Nest the control element within the content of the LABEL element
for implicit association. For example:
<FORM action="http://somesite.com/adduser" method="post">
  <LABEL>
    First Name
    <INPUT type="text" name="firstname">
  </LABEL>
  <LABEL>
    <INPUT type="text" name="lastname">
    Last Name
  </LABEL>
</FORM>

wendy chisholm
human factors engineer
trace research and development center
university of wisconsin - madison, USA

Received on Tuesday, 14 April 1998 17:33:14 UTC