Re: Form elements in tables

Monica,

you might like to provide a link to the tablin service that can be used to
lineraise the table.

basically, this is a link that means someone who can't easily see the
association (for example me, a lot of the time) between a header and a cell
can have the header repeated with each cell, while the rest of the world
doesn't have to.

Soyou add a link before the table, and if I follow it I get a rebuilt table -
for example

row1  head1 [input] head2 [input] head3 [input] head4 [input]
row2  head1 [input] head2 [input] head3 [input] head4 [input]
row3  head1 [input] head2 [input] head3 [input] head4 [input]
row4  head1 [input] head2 [input] head3 [input] head4 [input]
row5  head1 [input] head2 [input] head3 [input] head4 [input]

http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/tablin

On Mon, 20 Nov 2000, Monica Ackermann wrote:

  Hello,

  I am working on trying to make an HTML application accessible. The
  application is an inhouse application that consists primarily of pages that
  contain numerous form elements. I was asked to be involved in the project
  late in the development stage and as such there are certain design
  constructs that I cannot change (such as the use of tables for layout).

  Some of the pages have tables where each cell is a form element. How can I
  best label these elements so that a screen reader user can enter data and
  know where they are, without the screen being cluttered with extraneous
  labels?

  The tables look like this, where the column header can be considered the
  form element label:

  Column A	Column B	Column C	Column D
  [input text]	[input box]	[input box]	[input box]
  [input box]	[input box]	[input box]	[input box]
  [input box]	[input box]	[input box]	[input box]
  [input box]	[input box]	[input box]	[input box]
  [input box]	[input box]	[input box]	[input box]


  Can one label be used for multiple form elements? What other alternatives
  might there be?

  	<TR name = "header row">
  		<TH><STRONG>Name</STRONG></TH>
  		<TH><STRONG>Date</STRONG></TH>
                      	<TH>Gross</TH>
  		<TH>Net</TH>
  	</TR>

  		<INPUT type="hidden"
  			name="Month1"
  			id="Month1"
  			VALUE="">
  		</INPUT>

  	<TR name = "row1">
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtNameID1" maxlength=9 size=10></TD>
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtDateMnth1" maxlength=7  size=7></TD>
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtGross1" maxlength=9 size=9></TD>
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtNet1" maxlength=11  size=7></TD>
  		</TR>


  		<INPUT type="hidden"
  			name="Month2"
  			id="Month2"
  			VALUE="">
  		</INPUT>

  	<TR name = "row2">
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtNameID2" maxlength=9 size=10></TD>
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtDateMnth2" maxlength=7  size=7></TD>
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtGross2" maxlength=9 size=9></TD>
  		<TD><INPUT name="txtNet2" maxlength=11  size=7></TD>
  		</TR>


  I'd appreciate any help.

  Thanks

  Monica Ackermann
  Assistive Vocational Technology Associates
  Toronto, Ontario




-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    mailto:charles@w3.org    phone: +61 (0) 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative                      http://www.w3.org/WAI
Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
September - November 2000:
W3C INRIA, 2004 Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

Received on Thursday, 23 November 2000 09:34:06 UTC