Re: Action item: Bug 300- Form embedded in table

We have a technique that all form controls must have an explicitly associated label[1].

Your demo table fails the technique but is still accessible because it uses the title attribute of the control instead.

Should we modify our technique to permit the use of the title attribute instead of an explicitly associated label?

I think the type of form you have in the demo (using a table to identify the controls) is a rare type. So this is not a big issue.

Chris

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-HTML-TECHS/#label

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Sailesh Panchang 
  To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org 
  Cc: Jim Thatcher 
  Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 12:01 PM
  Subject: Action item: Bug 300- Form embedded in table 


  Bug 300:
  Question: what is the advice for properly labeling form controls when those controls sit in a table and the headings of the table provide visual clues
  for what is to be done with the controls? How should that be marked up for assistive technology?

  The first observation is that the label element cannot work because there are (assumed to be) two pieces of text associated with each form control -
  (the row header and the column header). At the same time, each piece of text also goes with more than one control. Since id's are unique, the label can only be
  used for one control.

  The second possibility is that heading markup in the table may be adequate for assistive technology; certainly all the information would be available
  if TH is used for the appropriate headings. The problem with this is that controls need to be navigated in "forms mode" and when in "forms mode" the
  headings information is not announced by most text to speech technologies. (Window-Eyes regards the table as a layout table and table-navigation keys cannot be used; Home Page Reader does not permit navigation in forms mode and  table mode at the same time like JAWS does). 

  The final possibility is to use the title attribute on each input control which provides information equivalent to the row and column headings. This
  works for all the assistive technology tested (JAWS For Windows 5.0, Window-Eyes 4.5 and Home Page Reader 3.02). The title attribute is read in forms mode as well as one tabs from control to control  out of forms mode.  
  See attached example  title-FormInTable.htm
  [1]
  http://trace.wisc.edu/bugzilla_wcag/show_bug.cgi?id=300

  Jim Thatcher and Sailesh Panchang