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Re: Foreign:Re: textbox in table cell

for

From: Jukka K. Korpela
Date: Mar 27, 2008 8:50AM

Moore, Michael wrote:

> The example that Jukka posted on this thread, where the inputs were
> placed within fieldsets with legends, would be the "ideal" solution in
> terms of web standards and accessibility.

It's also simplest to create.

> Unfortunately though,
> customer/client/manager demands frequently dictate the visual layout
> of the page and like it or not we are frequently required to create
> web interfaces/forms that mimic the appearance of paper forms or
> spreadsheets. We can advise, but unless we own the site we usually
> cannot dictate the solution.

Fair enough, but then it would also be fair to tell them that there is
not much one can achieve in terms of accessibility. I'm afraid
accessibility specialists, if they work under such conditions, will just
help to create the impression that accessibility has been improved and
is fairly good. It's like helping with a completely messed-up site with
all the possible design mistakes by adding ALT texts to images (and to
images that mostly shouldn't be there in the first place).

They are of course very incompetent in designing web pages and services
if they insist on their visual layout on a _form_ and require it to
mimic paper forms. You don't need to tell them that (and they wouldn't
believe you), but you should take this into account: the functionality
is crappy anyway, and putting some "accessibility enhancements" there is
more or less absurd.

Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/