Labels and Accessibility

According to the Section 508 Web Accessibility standards, each form
field requires a label. However, I've noticed from a usability
perspective adding a title attribute for the form elements such as a
text box will allow that title to be read by a screen reader. My
question is this, on pages where text displayed by the form field would
not be ideal for the site design; would a title attribute suffice for
accessibility? 

 

I've also tried using an invisible image with an alt tag that could be
used as a label and include <label> tags for that image just like it was
text. It too, seems to work fine for a label. Is this a suitable
solution when a developer would like to avoid displaying a text label? A
good example would be when you have an input box being used as a search
box, and the submit button clearly states "Search Site."

 

If anyone knows a contact that could help me out as far as the
accessibility of these options, the information would be greatly
appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

Joe Kuster

Web Access Compliance Team

Southwest Missouri State University