Fwd: Braille displays and web forms.

Please be sure to include tink in any replies to this well written  
message on the list.

My thoughts and then the message.

Simply, to save confusion, you could write: "delete this text.".   
Yes, filled edit boxes are still necessary because many users are  
running combinations of technologies that will not provide an  
indication which is not there.  A space simply will not work either  
because it shows up as nothing much the same as nothing in the field  
at all.  Braille notwithstanding, judicious use of comments in edit  
fields can also reduce the cognative load and provide assistance to  
speech users as well.

Thanks!



Begin forwarded message:


> From: Tink Watson tink@tink.co.uk
> To: Access UK access-uk@freelists.org
>
> Good afternoon,
>
>         Apologies for the cross post. Hoping some refreshable Braille
> display users can help with the following...
>
>
>         If a form on a web page contains an edit box, and the edit box
> doesn't have any place holding text already in it, can a person  
> using only
> Braille with their screen reader detect that the edit box is present?
>
>         It's been suggested that unless some text is already given  
> in the
> box, perhaps, "Enter your name here", then the box isn't detectable.
>
>         The second part of my enquiry, if the above suggestion  
> holds true,
> is whether a space entered into the box would make any difference  
> to the
> detection of the edit box.
>
>         To give all this some context, we're trying to find a  
> solution that
> works for audio and Braille feedback screen reader users. All too  
> often,
> when information is entered into an edit box that already contains  
> some
> text, the two get combined and you end up with something like,  
> "Enter your
> name here John Smith".
>
>         There are JavaScript solutions that automatically delete the
> existing text from the box, when the user tabs to it, but if you  
> are one of
> the estimated 10% of Internet users without JavaScript, this  
> doesn't help.
>
>         The next idea was to do away with using any place holding  
> text in an
> edit box all together, which is when the possibility of Braille  
> users not
> being able to identify edit boxes was brought up.
>
>
>         Hope you'll be able to help, these solutions are usually  
> all the
> better for actually talking to the people using these technologies.  
> *Smile.
>
> Thanks,
> Tink.
> --
> www.tink.co.uk/
>

Regards Steve,
Email:  srp@bigpond.net.au
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383@hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963

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Received on Thursday, 18 August 2005 10:48:20 UTC