RE: Tests 186, 187, 188, 189,

David MacDonald recommended to accept HTML test 187:
INPUT element must have only one associated LABEL. [1] 
 
Are there any accessibility problems with having two labels associated with
the same input element? To me it would that problems only occur if the wrong
label is associated, but that's true if only 1 label is associated as well.
Multiple labels are permitted by the HTML spec and used wisely it can
actually benefit accessibility. Based on this, I would like to reject this
test.
 
A real-world example: a content management system we built allowed the user
to choose between two images. We used radiobuttons placed below the images
to make the selection. One radiobutton had a text to it that read something
like 'use old photograph', the other 'use new photograph'. 
We chose to use both the image (where the alt text described the image) and
the text as labels. This way, the user could either click the image or the
text below it to make a selection, providing a larger click target for
people with limited motor functions. Also, it made sure that both the
alt-text of the image and the meaning of the radio button (to use that
image) were associated with the radio button.

Yvette Hoitink
Heritas, Enschede, the Netherlands
E-mail: y.p.hoitink@heritas.nl
WWW: http://www.heritas.nl 

[1] http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/WCAG20/tests/test187.html

Received on Wednesday, 10 August 2005 15:40:05 UTC