RE: radio button & drop-down

Kieran wrote:
> Part of the  problem is that when my test user was using it, he didn't 
> realise there were more than one radio button because jaws doesn't
> announce radio button 1 of 10 or something like that, so he
> instincitvely hit tab, which then took him to the drop-down
> associated with another radio button. I will have to rethink
> this screen I think.

Hi Kieran,

Out of curiosity - was the user in Forms Mode in JAWS?

If so, you may want to wrap the radio buttons and the <select> that is
associated with it in a fieldset with a legend...  Generally I've
observed[1] that when in forms mode, JAWS will announce the "legend" and
then the label for the form control you've just tabbed into... CAVEAT: I
haven't played that much with the verbosity settings in JAWS, and I've only
tested in more recent versions of JAWS, so YMMV...

Thus the the untested (pseudo-)code:

<fieldset>
<legend>Group 1</legend>
<label for="foo1">Radio option 1</label><input type="radio" name="whatever"
id="foo1" value="foo" />
<label for="select1">Dropdown 1</label>
<select name="bar" id="select1">
	<option>Text here</option>
</select>
</fieldset>

Should read in JAWS something like this (when in Forms Mode):

"Group 1, Radio Option 1, Radio Button, checked. To change the selection
press the up or down arrow"
Then, tab to next field.
"Group 1, Dropdown 1, Combo Box, Text here, 1 of 1"

So JAWS will read the <legend> for the current fieldset, then the label,
then the type of form control and any other hints for that type of control.

I would think that you should be able to rig something up that would work --
if you place each radio button with its associated select box in its own
fieldset, use appropriate <label> elements for each form control, you should
be able to get something working... Something along the lines of 3
fieldsets, each with a legend, a radio button and a select, and labels for
each of the radio/select inputs...

Hope this helps -- let us know what you come up with!

[1] When I say I've observed, I mean that I've seen it in action with JAWS
users, as well as through some of my own testing - I'm certainly no expert
JAWS user, but have used it enough to be able to do basic testing...

Best regards,
Derek.
--
Derek Featherstone  feather@wats.ca
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca   1.866.932.4878 (North America)

Received on Monday, 27 October 2003 21:20:33 UTC