RE: form controls to the left or right of labels?

I believe screen readers expect to find and look for the prompts for radio
buttons and checkboxes to the right of the controls. The assistive
technology when speaking in "forms  mode" decides how it is going to speak
the gathered information. With a check box and the "prompt" to the right of
the checkbox:

HPR: prompt checked
JFW: prompt Check Box Checked
Window-Eyes: Check Box Checked prompt.

Window-Eyes is not speaking it that way because the prompt is on the right;
they treat all controls the same way,

Window-Eyes: Edit Box prompt

When the "prompt" is to the left of the INPUT of type text.

This is also the way these three AT's speak form elements when the LABEL
element is used with the for attribute.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Loretta Guarino Reid
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 7:41 PM
To: gian@stanleymilford.com.au
Cc: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org; lguarino@adobe.com
Subject: Re: form controls to the left or right of labels?


I do wish we could find a way to phrase this that separates the appearance
on
the page from the way the information is presented to or by the screen
reader.
For instance, in PDF, I can place the label before the radio button in the
structure tree, even though the checkbox is to the left of the label. I
realize that mark-up languages may not have this flexibility.

	Loretta

>
> I would say this does violate the guideline, as from my perspective I
> would expect that the reasoning behind this checkpoint is for people
> using screen-readers: they need to know what the option is before they
> select it. So for example, having the radio button to the left of the
> text would mean the screen-reader would read "Radio button unchecked. 1
> pack. Radio button unchecked. 2 packs" etc.=20
>
> =2D----Original Message-----
> From: Mathew.Mirabella [mailto:Mathew.Mirabella@team.telstra.com]
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2001 11:41 AM
> To: w3c-wai-gl
> Subject: form controls to the left or right of labels?
>
>
> All.
>
> According to WCAG 1.0, labels for form controls should appear immediatly=
>
> before the control (or above it if there is only one control on the
> line).
> This usually means the label should appear just to the left of the
> control.
>
> This is fine for text entry fields and boxes and pull-down menus.
> However,
> for checkboxes and radio buttons, you often want to place the label to
> the
> right of the checkbox or radio button.  Does doing this violate the
> guideline?
>
> What are the current views of people on this issue.
>
>

Received on Thursday, 13 December 2001 21:52:14 UTC