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Re: Is a label element helpful here?

for

From: Celeste Mackintosh
Date: Jun 28, 2010 10:15PM

Thanks Deborah and Info LearnAccessibility.

Yes Deborah - the final column of the form does auto fill based on Javascript - it isn't for user input.

I guess I'm a little confused about JavaScript and screen readers - will the updated content appear for screen reader users? Or would a link above the table to a spreadsheet document containing all the values etc. the table calculates off be more useful?

I guess my question is: are screen reader users able to use this table - if they are, then definitely the labels are important. If not, is there any added value in having them here? Also, since at the moment if you look at this library's version of the calculator, the label text in that last row is just a $ sign - is this helpful?

Sorry about all of this - just trying to work this all out!

Thank you all :)

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of <EMAIL REMOVED>
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2010 2:24 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Is a label element helpful here?

Info LearnAccessibility wrote:

> Although, the form field is not meant for customer, it is still
> essential to provide label attribute as this is a field by library
> office and they may be user with assistive technology.

While I want to give a shout out to this valuable insight (I can't count the number of times I've had to respond to those writing webpages in my office when they explained that it was okay that the back-office interface wasn't accessible, because the customer-facing interface was), I don't think that's what Celeste meant here. It looks like the final column of the form auto fills based on JavaScript, and isn't for user input.

Still, Celeste, surely users reading assistive technology still need to know what the information in the final column is for, right? How will they know that if the field isn't labeled? Or am I misunderstanding?

-deborah