RE: Fieldset legend text doesn't wrap

David,

both things you mention (typical Windows convention and legends
as nouns or noun phrases) seem to me to be more of a stylistic issue,
rather than a case of "abuse". Structurally, I would say that
radio buttons are just as valid as a dropdown menu, especially when
the number of options are below a certain threshold (I usually go 
for around 5 or 6 options before employing a dropdown, but of course
there's other situations where I've used a dropdown even for something
like a two option choice).
I'd say that the fieldset wrapping, or not, is one of those limitations
on par with current CSS' lack of control of the finer display details
of things like checkboxes and radio buttons (where you still can't properly
set the background, or override the 3D look, etc)...although it looks like
CSS3's User Interface is going to rectify some of those shortcomings
- and blur the lines between what CSS can and cannot control with regards
to document versus browser chrome/GUI.
<http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-css3-userint-20000216.html>

Patrick
________________________________
Patrick H. Lauke
Webmaster / University of Salford
http://www.salford.ac.uk

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Woolley [mailto:david@djwhome.demon.co.uk]
> Sent: 24 May 2004 07:50
> To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Fieldset legend text doesn't wrap
> 
> 
> 
> > I've encountered this problem too. If Jason's example is an 
> "abuse of
> > legend", what exactly is the correct technique? 
> 
> The typical Windows interface convention for this would be to use
> a pulldown list (although there is no guaranteed way of achieving that
> in HTML as radio buttons are a valid rendering of select).  As such,
> having a fieldset for a single field doesn't make much sense.
> 
> The typical use of radio buttons is where there are other 
> controls associated
> with some of the radio buttons.
> 
> Fieldset legends are normally nouns or very short noun 
> phrases.  If the
> overall page is about favourites, here, then it would be 
> simply "colour",
> otherwise "favourite colour".
>  
> > The problem: With each radio button in this fieldset, screen readers
> > should announce two pieces of information: (1) the overall question
> 
> What's wrong with <p>?   If you only want one selection read out by 
> default, you should definitely be using select, as the other 
> reason for
> using radio buttons is to stress the complete list of choices.
> 
>

Received on Monday, 24 May 2004 04:29:57 UTC