Thread Subject: Re: Group D: 21 (l) and 22(n) accessible forms

Note

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From: Peter Korn
Date: Wed, Nov 29 2006 10:00 AM

Hi Jim,

> I disagree with the idea that the requirement on forms can be drawn from
> other aspects of the 508 Standards. There is nothing in 508 outside of 22(n)
> {and 21(l)} that requires that prompting information be available to screen
> reader users.
>

I think this should be addressed directly, and the ISO language that
Andi circulated is a good start. Andi's forwarded ISO language was:

ISO: Software shall provide assistive technology with information about
individual user interface elements, using methods compatible with 8.6.3,
except elements that only serve as an integral portion of a larger element,
taking no input and conveying no information of their own.


The key for me is that when we say "individual user interface elements",
that includes text labels (or "prompting information" as Jim terms it).

Also, in the ISO language that Andi quotes (in "Note 1"), it says:

User interface element information includes, but is not limited to:
... relationships between user interface elements (such as when one user
interface element contains, names, describes, or affects another).


We explicitly have a "labeling relationship" in the Java and UNIX
accessibility APIs, and I believe that this is alos the case in the
Macintosh OS X Accessibility API and Microsoft's UI Automation.


None of this is to say that in the Web portions of our guidelines we
shouldn't explicitly reinforce this, noting at least a "sufficient
technique" for exposing the prompting information to browsers, and from
there to AT.

Regards,
Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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