- From: Patrick H. Lauke <redux@splintered.co.uk>
- Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 13:41:39 +0100
- To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Gautier Barrere wrote: > "Until user agents handle empty controls correctly, > include default, place-holding characters in edit boxes and text > areas." I've asked quite a few times on the list here, but to no avail. From my own testing, I'd say that the time has come to ditch this guideline. I am not aware of any user agent (with/without assistive technology running on top of it) in use today that can't handle empty form elements. If memory serves me right, this guideline was created because Netscape 2 in combination with Outspoken on Mac had some issues and silently omitted these form elements... Also spoke to Shawn Lawton Henry http://www.w3.org/People/Shawn/ quite a while ago, and she conceded that I may not be wrong with my assumption that it's time to ditch this. Placeholder text can cause more problems (or at least annoyances) than it (supposedly) solves. > But how can I do if I use radio ou check button ? (for instance for > the gender choice, between, "man and woman") Placeholder text does not apply to radio or check buttons. As the guideline says: edit boxes (i.e. input type="text" and textareas). > I should do a choice by default, for instance "man" but it won't > ensure relevance of the data gathered (Indeed, I'm sure that a lot of > women won't change this, even if they will respond to my form). You're getting confused between placeholder text and having a default choice already set. There is no guideline covering the latter. -- Patrick H. Lauke __________________________________________________________ re·dux (adj.): brought back; returned. used postpositively [latin : re-, re- + dux, leader; see duke.] www.splintered.co.uk | www.photographia.co.uk http://redux.deviantart.com __________________________________________________________ Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force http://webstandards.org/ __________________________________________________________
Received on Tuesday, 12 July 2005 12:41:45 UTC