Re: Required input. HTML attribute and plain "required" text in label results in duplication for AT. Hide one?

That's me Adam (wildly optimistic) : )


Re:

> If the “required” isn’t a child of the label, then it won’t be announced when the field is focused because it is not programmatically associated with it …  only when using virtual cursor/browse mode below the field will it be announced.


Thank you. I have amended internal docs to emphasise what we already stated, that explicit (not implicit) association of label+input is needed.


Our docs require users to use the text "required" as part of the label text, so that's visual users covered.


So as long as AT upon seeing an input with the 'required' attribute announces it as "required", then this seems like the right balance.


My only remaining worry is; are there any user-agent + AT combos that may fail to announce a "required" input as such? I am banking on this functionality being robust and ubiquitous.

​

Regards,

Alan
. . . . -   . . - - -
Alan Bristow ( he / him / il )
Web Developer / Développeur Web
Elections Canada / Élections Canada
alan.bristow@elections.ca<mailto:alan.bristow@elections.ca>
+1 873-416-1175
________________________________
From: Adam Cooper <cooperad@bigpond.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2022 8:41 PM
To: Bristow, Alan; 'Guy Hickling'; 'WAI Interest Group discussion list'
Subject: RE: Required input. HTML attribute and plain "required" text in label results in duplication for AT. Hide one?

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Wildly optimistic, Alan … I guess the best you can do is create an attribute selector for :required  that does something like add ‘required’ to a span when the HTML attribute is present using ::before or ::after …  at least that means there is a visual indicator (inputs don’t accept pseudo elements).

If the “required” isn’t a child of the label, then it won’t be announced when the field is focused because it is not programmatically associated with it …  only when using virtual cursor/browse mode below the field will it be announced.

With regards to anomalies in  announcements for screen reader users such as repetition or running together, if these issues were visible, then they’d be treated as functional defects and likely resolved, and so it should be for screen reader users.

That there is an argument about whether such issues are failures of WCAG is irrelevant




From: Bristow, Alan <Alan.Bristow@elections.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2022 10:39 PM
To: Guy Hickling <guy.hickling@gmail.com>; WAI Interest Group discussion list <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Re: Required input. HTML attribute and plain "required" text in label results in duplication for AT. Hide one?

Thank you Adam, Guy, Marc and Patrick.

On balance I am sure now that I should use the aria-hidden to avoid the repetition. But clearly advances in AT will, in time, tackle this more holistically and remove the need for such a workaround (I hope I am not  being overly optimistic there).

It was especially helpful indeed to hear, Adam, that a measure such as this is actually valuable.


Regards,

Alan
. . . . -   . . - - -
Alan Bristow ( he / him / il )
Web Developer / Développeur Web
Elections Canada / Élections Canada
alan.bristow@elections.ca<mailto:alan.bristow@elections.ca>
​
________________________________
From: Guy Hickling <guy.hickling@gmail.com<mailto:guy.hickling@gmail.com>>
Sent: Wednesday, August 31, 2022 8:31 AM
To: WAI Interest Group discussion list
Subject: Re: Required input. HTML attribute and plain "required" text in label results in duplication for AT. Hide one?

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BTW, when I said "hidden" text, that was a mistake of course. The "required" in the label element isn't hidden, as Adam pointed out - thanks! I was concentrating too much on the attribute and not enough on the label. A case of the left typing fingers not knowing what the right ones were doing!