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Re: Label vs ALT tag on form elements

for

From: Moore, Michael
Date: Mar 23, 2007 7:00AM

Keith,

To clarify. I tested label, title, and alt with the following results.

Label using for and id attributes correctly:
JAWS 6.1 Reported Correctly
ZoomText Reader Failed on mousover but succeeded when input was
selected. This was slightly different behavior than I have seen on
previous experiments and in live application testing.

Title attribute on input - no label present
JAWS 6.1 Reported Correctly
ZoomText 9.0 Reader Reported Correctly

Alt attribute on input - no label present
JAWS 6.1 Failed
ZoomText 9.0 Failed

Conclusions: Best practice, use both label and title. Alt attribute is
not reported by the assistive technology tested, thus use would be
marginally beneficial at best, assuming that you found a user agent that
would report the value of the attribute. Obviously, my quick experiment
was not exhaustive.

Code follows:

<h1>Test Form</h1>
<form action="" method="get">
<h2>Label</h2>
<label for="t1">Can you see me now</label>
<input id="t1" type="text" size="40" />

<h2>Title</h2>
<input id="t2" type="text" size="40" title="can you see me now" />

<h2>ALT</h2>
<input id="t3" type="text" size="40" alt="can you see me now" />

</form>


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Keith Parks
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 7:09 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Label vs ALT tag on form elements


On Mar 21, 2007, at 11:00 AM, Moore, Michael wrote:

> Perhaps its time for a little comparison and some results of testing.
>
> [snip... ZoomText 9.0: Label element fails with ZoomText's reader.
> Title attribute provides most reliable rendering of the purpose of the

> input.
>
> Our recommendation: Use both title and label whenever possible to
> achieve the most robust coverage.

So just to confirm, you tested "Title" and not "ALT", which was what I
originally asked about, right?

Did you test ALT attributes?


******************************
Keith Parks
Graphic Designer/Web Designer
Student Affairs Communications Services
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA 92182-7444

(619) 594-1046

mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.sdsu.edu
http://www.sa.sdsu.edu/communications
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