Re: label tag question

On Thu, 31 Mar 2005 05:40:43 +1000, Patrick H. Lauke  
<redux@splintered.co.uk> wrote:

> Kim had written
>> To comply with Section 508, does the textbox need to be associated with  
>> the button?

>  Unfortunately, that's not directly possible.

Has anyone actually tested having the submit button inside a label element  
to perform the function of a label? Or is it not valid code? (I am  
thinking out loud, because I haven't got the spec in front of me)

> However, I'd suggest something like

>  <form action="..." method="...">
>     <label for="searchterm">Search for:</label>
>     <input type="text" name="q" id="searchterm" value="" />
>     <input type="submit" value="search" />
> </form>

>  and use CSS to hide the label (unless I'm mistaken, even hiding it via  
> CSS still retains the necessary association used by AT such as  
> screenreaders)

When Joe Clark did some testing of this question he found out what some  
people had been saying was true. You are at least somewhat mistaken, in  
that many techniques for hiding stuff with CSS hide it from assistive  
technologies as well. I believe that the technique of putting things in  
some position that doesn't appear on screen (such as 1000 em to the left  
of the left margin) means assistive technologies pick it up, but it can  
get somewhat confusing for visual users relying on keyboard navigation if  
their focus simply vanishes.

Mr Foliot (hello, Mr Foliot :-) said (and I quote)

..."(although I'm sure there would be at least one voice which would argue  
that it should be visible to all users...)"...

Mine is just such a voice. Although the close proximity of a button  
labelled search will do it for most users, clear labelling is a great  
thing. Please leave the label visible.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile                      Fundacion Sidar
charles@sidar.org   +61 409 134 136    http://www.sidar.org

Received on Thursday, 31 March 2005 01:42:41 UTC