Re: [QUES] how to make forms more accessible.

I agree with Al - where the browser does not handle FORM you will probably
need to provide some non-web mechanism (email? telephone? ISINDEX
element?)

One of the big problems with forms is where they are submitted via a
javascript or other non-standard mechanism. This is unfortunately fairly
common, but it is addresed by following the Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines.

Charles McCN

On Mon, 29 Mar 1999, Al Gilman wrote:

  At 02:16 PM 3/28/99 -0500, Mark Andrew Nassy wrote:
  >does anyone have any suggestions, or know how to make forms accessible to
  >web browsers etc that do not support <form> </form> tag.  i may have
  >overlooked it, but i was unable to locate any information on the
  >
  ><URL:http://www.w3.org/> web site.
  
  As far as I know, this is a situation which is best handled under the "tell
  the user how else they can access the same service" technique.  Telephone
  and email methods of conducting a transaction are often convenient for some
  users who find Web forms inconvenient.
  
  For an example, the "Accessible Formats" clause on
  
  How to Participate In the FCC Process: How to Tell Your NOIs from Your NPRMs
  
  
  http://www.fcc.gov/dtf/knownoi.html
  
  reads as follows:
  
     Accessible Formats
     The Commission will provide documents in accessible formats, upon
         request. Accessible formats available are: computer diskette,
         large print, audio cassette, and Braille. Additionally, all
         Commission items are posted on the Internet site:
         http://www.fcc.gov. All items that affect persons with
         disabilities are posted on the FCC's Disabilities Issues Task
         Force site, and can be downloaded, at: http://www.fcc.gov/dtf.
         This site is accessible to persons with disabilities. For requests
         for alternative formats, please contact Martha Contee at (202)
         418-0263 voice, (202) 418-2555 TTY or E-mail: mcontee@fcc.gov.
  
  A browser which does not even recognize the <FORM> element is beyond what
  one should try to provide an HTML solution for.
  
  Note that a recent American Foundation for the Blind survey of Windows
  users found a very small fraction report success filling out forms.  I
  expect this to be representative of the way GUI clients in general
  implement Web forms in particular, so at this time it would seem prudent to
  provide non-Web alternatives to Web forms if you want to guarantee access
  to services for your citizens or customers.  
  
  Business transaction processing, currently addressed by Web forms, is one
  of the problem areas we cannot be sure we have completely solved with these
  guidelines.
  
  Al
  
  >Mark Andrew Nassy,
  ><MAILTO:nassy@flash.net>
  > 
  

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Monday, 29 March 1999 11:30:56 UTC