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Re: Accessible Form Validation Errors

for

From: Mike Moore
Date: Sep 3, 2004 8:10AM

Darrel,

It looks like your error message indicates that the error will be displayed
in bold red. To make this more accessible include something other than just
color to indicate the error. Since you are already using an asterisk to
indicate a required field, there are a couple of things that you can do:
Add a second asterisk or the word error to the lable for the problem input.
An even more helpful solution, assuming programming support would be to
provide a link directly to the field where there is an error.

I am assuming that you are using label tags arround the inputs.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: darrel.austin [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 12:59 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] Accessible Form Validation Errors


I'm working on getting our contact form for our new web site as accessible
as we can get it to be.

Are there any best practices for creating accessible error messages when the
form is not valid?

For instance, when there's an error, here's what I'm displaying now:

==================================================* There is a problem with your submission. Please check the form below for
any errors (shown in bold red). Please correct the errors and resubmit your
message.

Your Name: * Name Required
[ text field ]
==================================================
I'm displaying a notice at the top stating an error, and then pointing out
the specific errors next to each field. It's a short form (4 fields) but are
there any suggestions as to how to make it a tad more accessible? I was
thinking of using a different error notice at the top that would explicitely
mention the specific fields with errors and link to their anchors directly.
Thoughts?

-Darrel

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