Re: Question re: WCAG2.0, Requirement 3.3.2

I think we also need to be asking what is the responsibility of the 
browser and AT, including the magnifiers, not just the screen readers. and 
also how the content is re-flowed for smaller mobile displays.  And 
internationalization (right to left languages) needs to be considered too. 


Screen readers today can determine which is the correct label by either 
guessing or by the author correctly marking up the label so that it is 
programmatically determinable (recommended), regardless of where the label 
is visually.  So, a screen magnifier could also determine and speak (if it 
has that feature) and correctly position the view pane to display the 
label and the checkbox or radio button. Reflow and transformation and 
translation tools can use this too. 

I agree that best practices should usually (always?) but the label in a 
consistent place. I'm just trying to also add to the discussion the 
responsibility of the users agent/browser and any assistive technology and 
not try (which I believe is impossible) to solve all the considerations 
with just author markup and CSS.

Regards,
Phill Jenkins, 
IBM Research - Human Ability & Accessibility Center
http://www.ibm.com/able
http://www.facebook.com/IBMAccessibility
http://twitter.com/IBMAccess
http://www.linkedin.com/in/philljenkins