Re: Are forms accessible

• From: Jason White <jasonw@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>
• Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 11:32:57 +1100 (AEDT)
• To: WAI Interest Group <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
• Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.95.971031112616.14945A-100000@ariel.ucs.unimelb.EDU.AU>

The HTML 4.0 draft allows labels and keyboard commands to be associated
with each item in a form. The WAI HC working group has also proposed an
important enhancement to the SELECT element, whereby options can be
grouped into hierarchically organised lists. If all of these features are
widely used by authors and supported in braille and speech-based HTML
software, there should be no further accessibility problems with respect
to forms.

At present, I use Lynx version 2.7.1 and have not encountered any
access barriers related to forms. Some of them are slow and cumbersome to
complete, and I hope this shortcoming will be resolved by (1) the ability
to select items in a form by way of keyboard commands; and (2) the
hierarchical grouping of options as proposed by the WAI.

Received on Thursday, 30 October 1997 19:33:18 UTC