WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Navigation in HTML forms

for

From: David Andrews
Date: Apr 21, 2009 5:50PM

I am a screen reader user -- and I wouldn't tend to use header
navigation in surveys. This is primarily because surveys are
generally one off things, that is, I do it, and am done, so may not
be that familiar with it. That makes me less likely to use larger
navigation jumps -- I would tend to just down arrow quickly, as I
wouldn't necessarily know how far I had to go or skip.

Dave

At 10:37 AM 4/21/2009, you wrote:
>Hello,
>
>For many years we have been recommending to use fieldset/legend elements to
>make radio buttons and check boxes accessible. With this technique you
>associate each
>radio or checkbox item with the proper legend element so a screen reader
>user always knows what group of radio or checkbox items he is dealing with.
>so far so good.
>
>On the other hand, I have been recommending to make the question surveys a
>heading (h2-h6) especially in large surveys. This would allow screen reader
>users to navigate easily between questions and/or skip selected questions
>using screen reader heading navigation function.
>
>Here's the problem:
>
>Apparently, HTMl does not allow the use of header elements inside or outside
>the legend element so I can't not make my radio or checkbox question a
>heading in the form. See the question 3 and 4 at:
>
>http://illinois.edu/goto/TestSurvey
>
>If they were using ordered list for the survey questions, there wouldn't be
>a strong need to make the questions a heading because screen reader programs
>offer a good navigation mechanism for lists; question numbering is hard
>coded and are not coming from OL.
>
>Here's my questions and I would be thankful if you share your feedback with
>me and/or the group.
>
>1. How many of you in particular screen reader users use the heading
>navigation in a mid-size or large surveys.
>
>2. Do you consider making survey questions a heading as a Best Practice for
>mid-size or large HTML forms?
>Note that in large surveys you might need to skip one or a set of survey
>questions so you need a mean to easily jump over selected questions.
>
>Thanks,
>Hadi
>
>
>